


The Evil Within: Decent

by OfDarkMind



Category: The Evil Within (Video Game)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-27
Updated: 2017-11-11
Packaged: 2018-02-22 22:08:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 42,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2523482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OfDarkMind/pseuds/OfDarkMind
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Joseph can clearly see Sebastian fading into the deep bottom of that bottle. He has seen him slowly decline for the last six months and he is growing weary of being a savior and suffering the repercussions of that. Not only does it strain his home life but it also is straining his friendship with Sebastian and he has to decide what to do. How can he choose the path to take when both are so unpleasant?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Guardian Angel

**Author's Note:**

> It occurs to me the more I watch the interactions that Joseph's feelings are more than partner/friend toward Sebastian. All patently evident by things throughout his interactions with Sebastian and no one will convince me otherwise. I just got an idea in my head and decided to write it out. I am not even sure where this is going but if it does well I will keep it going! Will also be available to read on FF.net. Be warned of M/M possible sexual interaction, violence, drunkenness, bad language and oodles of angst! Love Angst.

Every night since the accident it’s been the same thing and Joseph has had to sit there and watch it happen every time. To be honest, he was the only one who would watch Sebastian in these moments. Every time Seb’s work shift would end, he would make his way to the nearest watering hole and drink himself blind.   
Of course, Joseph never let Seb see him watching. Joseph knew Seb would not like the… stalking… if that is the word you want to use. Joseph knew some people would use that word to describe what he is doing but he preferred to think of it as ‘being a watchful angel’. 

Joseph, just within the last year had pulled Seb out of so many tight fixes and it didn’t bother him in the slightest that Seb doesn’t appear to remember any of it. And if he does remember what he was doing, then he is a great actor at pretending otherwise. Even if that were the case, Joseph would never bring it up. He knew Sebastian would hate knowing the things he has done.

Sebastian is an amazing detective. Joseph looked up to him. He has since the day they met. But since the accident, the tables turned and it was not as romantic as a young new detective idolizing his older superior detective partner. Joseph became a silent crutch and Seb, although has been getting flack for his constant self-medicating, still maintained his ‘brilliant detective’ status.

Tonight was no different. Although Joseph noticed that things were a little worse. But the fact that each encounter seemed to be worse than the last one was no different, it’s been steadily increasing in ferocity since this all started. Tonight Seb was nearly jumped by a bunch of bikers this time and Joseph stepped in to save him. He reasoned with the bikers, who were considerably pissed off, while he tried to hold Seb back from getting himself killed.  
“What are you, his pet?” The biker in the front asked.

“No, I am his partner. He just lost his wife and daughter- he doesn’t know what he is doing.” Joseph grunted between snarls and ravings from Sebastian as he struggled against him. Joseph knew he was only able to keep Sebastian back because he was drunk. If he was sober… there would have been no way. Seb is much stronger.   
“So you’re a cop too? You don’t look like a cop, boy. I don’t see any cuffs hanging from that little waist of yours.” Joseph’s short black hairs on the nape of his neck stood up a little. The way the biker murmured the last statement made him uncomfortable.

“I have a gun you piece of shit! I will use it! Get off me, Seph!” Sebastian slurred, trying to dislodge Joseph’s hands and push him out of the way. But drunken incoordination rendered resistance futile. Although this fact didn’t seem to deter Sebastian from giving everything he had at the moment to pulling out his piece and shooting the kneecaps out from under that fat bastard across the way. 

“Don’t listen to him!” Joseph said over his shoulder at the biker, managing to pull Seb’s hands in front of him, pinning them cupped against his chest. He was looking at Sebastian now, right in his face. His glasses were starting to fog up a little in the stress of holding onto the man, but he had to do something and steamed up glasses weren’t really a big issue.

“Seb look at me.” Joseph muttered. He could hear the biker walking closer. He heard another sound over the heavy clomp of boots against wood. Was it the sound of a belt buckle? Joseph didn’t want to look to see if his sense of hearing was spot on… he just focused on the one thing that could save them both a world of hurt. Seb… he had to get Seb out of there for both their sakes.

“You’re a pretty little one… boy.” The biker said and Joseph felt a creeping chill run up his back just hearing the leering intent in his voice. Never mind actually seeing it. If he looked into the reflection of Seb’s eyes hard enough he would likely see the biker’s form in them… but he didn’t want too. The other biker’s in the bar chuckled and jeered at them. Joseph knew full well what the biker had a mind to do.

“You’re not touching him. I will do more than take out your knees if you come any closer!” Seb threatened. A hand came up and grabbed a fistful of the vest at Joseph’s back and he was jerked against Seb’s chest. He was a bit shocked at Seb’s strength all of a sudden but more so the deadly look in his face. He meant business. 

“Seb- don’t! You’re a cop! You can’t!” Joseph argued quietly as his eyes focused on the strong sweaty muscle of Sebastian’s neck. It gleamed in the soft lighting of the bar. The atmosphere of the bar crackled with intense electric poison… someone will get hurt. Damn it. Why didn’t he just buy a case and go home and get wasted?!

“How about we make a deal; I will forget your fucking assholery if you… give me… him.” He pointed at Joseph’s back. “I wager that is a fair trade.” A finger traced down Joseph’s neck; a light brush of an index finger.

“Oh my god…’ Joseph muttered raggedly, closing his eyes and feeling sickened. Not only by the unwanted touch from the prospecting biker, but the nauseating way he trembled and pushed against Seb… like he was trying to be protected. He is a cop for Christ sake… 

“No deal.” Sebastian muttered as he got up and stumbled back as Joseph sought to pull away from the biker’s unwanted touch. He clutched at the material of Joseph’s clothing a little harder and swung him around so that he put himself between the biker and his partner. Unfortunately, this lent Joseph the proper advantage. He grabbed Seb’s holster straps and dragged him back out of the bar. Fortunately no one stopped them. Perhaps none of them were stupid after all. 

That is not to say threats of every violent manner you can think of was hurled at them from a room full of pissed off bikers, but from Seb too. Getting him out of there and onto the street was not a seamless transition, but Joseph got him to his car and leaned on it panting. Sebastian stumbled to the side a little as if he was going to fall into the gutter near the back of Joseph’s car. Joseph instinctively reached out to grab him, break his fall, but then realized Seb had leaned over to puke in the ditch. 

“Jesus, Seb. Why? Why do you do this? To yourself? To… me?” He asked Sebastian’s retching back. He perhaps hadn’t meant to say the last bit out loud but he was so aggravated and hated seeing his friend like this. Sebastian didn’t seem to hear him. 

Okay, maybe Joseph didn’t do so much ‘reasoning’ with the biker… but it didn’t change the fact that he was still able to get Sebastian out of the bar before they both became someone’s whipping boy. Joseph swallowed hard in his throat. It was more likely he who would have become the toy… that is where it seemed to be leading in there, if Sebastian hadn’t grabbed him and through him around – although, drunk or not, he was sure Seb wouldn’t have let the biker’s hurt him. 

Joseph looked up in the doorway and felt a pitiful spasm of fear as he watched the biker, accompanied but four more walking toward the exit to the bar. He was not sure if they were intending to pursue but he didn’t want to stick around to find out. He reached over to Sebastian’s holster strap and pulled him up into a standing position, a little bit of vomit still dripping out of his pale faced mouth, Joseph gave him a stern slap to the cheek.

“Seb! Snap out of it for a second! You need to help me get you in the car! We need to leave now!” Joseph said in a bit of a panic. He has his gun, if worst comes to worst, he would have some protection, but he didn’t want it to become a killing spree. 

“Joseph? Hehe… what are you doing here?” Sebastian asked with a light chuckle as he reached up, for reasons only known to his drunken mind, caressed the side of Joseph’s face. Just for a moment Joseph had nearly let his guard down as his eyes fluttered closed at the unexpected touch. He felt a bit of a thrill run up his spine and his skin tingled where his face was touched. He could smell Sebastian. Not the booze or the subsequent expulsion of having drunk so much but… his scent; his specific piquant masculinity under the stale cologne and drink. It always pulled Joseph in. And until this moment he has always been able to contain himself, but now his belly was shaking, his knees were starting to go weak.

The bar door opened and broke that moment of euphoria for Joseph. His eyes snapped toward where the biker stood framed in the doorway. He was looking at him. Was he looking AT him or just looking around him? Joseph couldn’t tell and now was not the time to let Seb see them so he clutched at his friend’s back. 

“Come on, Seb! Get in the car! Now!” He used as much force as he could. He pulled Seb to the passenger side door and opened it clumsily. He wasn’t sure what the bikers were doing, he didn’t take his eyes off Seb and the car to notice. Perhaps he was hoping that if he ignored them and moved fast enough they would leave them alone. He unceremoniously shoved Sebastian into the car and slammed the door shut before he ran as fast as he could to get behind the wheel; still not looking to see if the bikers moved.   
He knew in the back of his head that if the bikers had wanted to continue the dispute, they would have been down the stairs and on the pavement near his car before he finished stuffing Seb into the seat. The fact that they were still on the stairs as he started his car and pulled away from the curb as he looked into his rearview mirror told him either he moved a lot faster than he thought he did or they weren’t looking for immediate trouble. However… given the bikers reputation in that particular bar, they had a tendency to follow up their altercations away from where it started. 

Sebastian was lolling around in the passenger seat with the motion of the small car, head hanging and coughing a little as if he were going to throw up again. Joseph didn’t relish the idea of puke getting on the interior of his car, but it was that or stopping the car so he can hang out the door and give the bikers the chance to find them. Still… he had told his very annoyed wife that he was working a case and that is why he didn’t come home all the time immediately after work. He swallowed, that familiar guilt rising up in his chest. 

He loved his wife… though perhaps not the same way he had when they first met. He will always love the mother of his daughter. But things have not been the best between them for the last couple of years. She had changed a lot, became distant and demanding. Joseph found the romantic feelings toward her slipping away with each passing day til one day he woke up and went to work finding he didn’t want to go back home. He stayed because he loved his daughter with all his heart and he did not believe in divorce nor want her to grow up without him. 

His eyes shifted from the street to the rearview and then to Sebastian. Again, a lump rose up in his throat and he forcefully pulled his eyes away from the swaying drunk man next to him. He may have lied to his wife about actually working a case but it was a white lie. He was working, just… not being paid for it. Nearly getting killed or perhaps raped. For this, Joseph would love to have been given a nice big check, but really… if he were to be honest with himself, he couldn’t think of anything else he would rather do than to be with Sebastian. 

He had his daughter, he was involved with her as much as he could be but that issue was complicated because most of the time he also had to contend with his wife at the same time. It struck him as funny and ominous then that he doesn’t believe in divorce. Not believing in divorce is tantamount to a lie when you ignore the reasons you shouldn’t be with a person anymore. So he continues the lie of love and forever and he is lying to her about what he is really doing until sometimes passed one o’clock in the morning or not coming home at all while he protects Sebastian from himself and he is okay with it. He can’t do the divorce thing but he is fine with lying. 

A hard retch sound broke Joseph out of his dark musing and realized Sebastian was dry heaving into his cupped hands. Nothing was coming out, he must have emptied into the gutter, but Joseph swung to the side of the road quickly.

“Jesus, open the door! Don’t puke in my car, Seb!” He said as gently as he could. Although there was nothing gentle about it. He realized he cannot have Sebastian puke in his car, despite his previous thoughts. If his wife detected that, she would assume that he had been the one drinking and god forbid Joseph give her more ammunition to make him feel worthless. 

“I’m… I’m good. I don’t think I am gonna – ‘ Sebastian said thickly but fumbled the door open with only enough time to get his head clear of the car and heaved onto the shoulder. Joseph grabbed onto Sebastian’s sleeve to keep him from toppling face first out of the car and onto the shoulder, not to mention the pool of regurgitated alcohol. When Sebastian seemed to stop, Joseph pulled him back in and pulled away from the curb, doing a quick scan of the street and sidewalks to see if anyone was watching.  
Again, Sebastian wiped at his mouth and for some reason seemed remarkable lucid at the moment he turned and looked at Joseph. Clearly, with no hint of slurred speech he muttered.

“I am glad you are here, Seph.” 

Joseph wasn’t sure if he wanted to pull over and beat the shit out of him or hold onto him at that moment. All he knew was he felt a simultaneous spasm of anger and a burning tingle in his gut that contradicted each other. When two opposite forces clash in one area it creates a storm. And Joseph, after a very bad six month period of similar situations to tonight, had all he could do not to thunder and quake at his friend. He knew why Sebastian is in this condition but it didn’t make it right or okay.

Joseph considered where to go; where he can bring Sebastian to sleep this off. He could easily bring him to a motel. But he didn’t feel comfortable with that. Just dumping him off in a cheap room with a bed. He considered bringing Sebastian home to his own house but that was a little further away than he cared to travel and Joseph himself was too worn out to drive lengthy distances. His wife and daughter were at her mothers in Canada right now so the only logical explanation would be to bring Sebastian to his house… let him… sleep on the couch. 

That burning surged up again at the thought of bringing Sebastian home with him. What if his wife was there? What if she sees Sebastian drunk? She will think they had been out club hopping. Joseph licked his lips. He would check. If she is there he will have to either bring him home or drop him off in a motel. 

Ten minutes later, Joseph was hauling a staggering Sebastian out of the car. Sebastian’s drunken stupor returned and didn’t appear to know what he was doing or saying. Some of the things coming out of his mouth seemed random and bizarre while others, mostly toward his deceased wife, came as a blow to Joseph. 

Joseph struggled to get his shoes off in the doorway and then Sebastian’s took an additional ten minutes because Seb refused to stand up on his own. When he managed it and coaxed Sebastian to put the offered slippers on he stood up with a sigh and looked into the dark living room. The couch was not very comfortable. He stood their panting with the effort to hold Sebastian up as he looked at the well-worn couch. He couldn’t let Sebastian lay on that. Drunk or not, that would make for a very rude awakening in the morning. He grimaced because he knew dragging Sebastian up the stairs to the bedrooms would be really difficult, and given the fact that Sebastian is leaning on him, knees buckling a little, it may even be impossible.

Then Joseph remembered his home office. It was a good sized room and tucked near a corner between the wall and a cabinet, there was an old futon that his father gave him long ago. Joseph has used it a lot over the last year on his own. And besides all the obvious positives about stowing Sebastian in the office space, it’s on the first floor too, which makes it perfect. He struggled through the clean kitchen, snagging a few times on the chairs or the handles of the drawers as they passed. He pushed through the beaded curtain partition and sat Sebastian clumsily on the computer chair before clearing some boxes of paper to the side and spreading out the futon.

Once the bed was set Joseph walked up to Sebastian and clutched his shoulders to force him to sit up straight. He was going to just lay him down but looked at the vest, it was restrictive and tight and he knew he could not sleep that way. He swallowed nervously as he flicked his eyes up to Sebastian’s face. 

“Seb… come on. Take the vest off and lay down on the futon.” He noticed a bit of a tremor in his voice as he spoke. Knowing full well that Sebastian was beyond coordinated thought and movement, he would likely have to do this himself. “Sebastian?” 

Sebastian gave a feeble jerk of his hand toward the buttons of his vest before it flopped limply on his lap again; his face slack as if he were asleep. Joseph sighed and pushed his forefinger and thumb under his glasses that were slipping down the bridge of his nose and rubbed at his burning eyes. He stood up a little and removed his gloves, forgetting they were even on him; he laid them aside and gingerly took hold of the tie around Sebastian’s neck. 

A flutter of some unseen force encased him just for a second as he pulled to loosen the knot. It came away easily. He moves slowly. He thought in his head perhaps that he was careful because he didn’t want to hurt his friend. But… deep down he could not lie to himself that it wasn’t pleasing him to take such particular care.   
His hands slid over the soft material of the tie as he pulled it free then to the collar of his shirt, unbuttoning it to just below the hollow of his neck, exposing a few hairs that popped up from under the blouse and slick sweaty skin. Joseph’s eyes were drawn to it. The soft brown slanted eyes of his Japanese heritage narrowed as he tried not to scrutinize the area with such reverence. His glasses slipped down his nose a little and he tutted irritably with himself for reacting this way and shoved them up into place again before finishing the job in a faster pace that didn’t give him the chance to be gratified by the action. 

In a few minutes he had Sebastian’s slippers, socks, vest and tie off; his dress shirt was open to reveal a chest lightly covered in hair that was partially covered in a thin white cotton tank top. He gulped as he brought the dress shirt down over his arms and unconsciously slowly to expose his defined arms. They weren’t huge, but easily twice the size of his own. 

Oh god… His mind whispered as his thumbs ran along the muscles and could feel how warm he is. His eyes flickered up to Sebastian’s and felt very uncomfortable and embarrassed to find that Seb was looking at him. Joseph suddenly felt naked and on display. The expression of Sebastian face was odd. He had never seen his friend, drunk or not, look like that. It was an intense questioning. A questioning to a burning suspicion he desperately needed an answer too. Joseph wasn’t sure he wanted to give the answer. And he was not even sure had Sebastian asked him if he would be able to deny it. Knowing the hopeless romantic he is, Joseph would spill his guts outs with the first breath.   
“Seb… pull your arms out of the shirt and lay down on the futon.” Joseph said quickly to ward off the question, for some reason, he was certain to come from the way his friend’s eyes surveyed him so penetratingly. 

“What are you doing?” Sebastian asked. It certainly wasn’t the question that Joseph anticipated but it irritated and relieved him at the same time. Again, opposing forces in the same area… a sudden storm whipped up in his gut and he slapped Sebastian on the face, his normally kind and soft face momentarily hard with disapproval glared at him.  
“Keeping you from getting killed! Now remove your damned shirt and sleep this off, Sebastian!” He yelled a little louder than he meant too, but it got Sebastian to move and help. Sebastian struggled to get the sleeves down over his hands so that by the time he managed it, he was cussing loudly at the shirt he had flung aside. He made no mention of the unfamiliar room or the futon to which he flopped down on. Not to mention he had nothing to say about the slap to the face. He just groaned in an awkward side position, staying where he fell. 

After loosening his own tie and unbuttoning his vest, Joseph lowered himself to his knees at Sebastian’s side and helped him straighten out on the mattress. He pulled the blanket up to just below his stomach and readjusted the pillow under Sebastian’s head. 

He rose, walked out to the kitchen, got a bowl of cool water and a cloth and went back to kneel at Sebastian’s side. He seemed to be asleep. Joseph lowered the lighting in the room to minimize the glare on the back of his friend’s sleeping eyes and started to dab at his sweaty skin with a damp cool cloth. Sebastian didn’t throw him off. Even in the dim light, Joseph could see the red mark he left on Sebastian cheek from where he slapped him and felt guilty about it.

In this moment he felt it was okay to let his mind wander. It was quiet. Sebastian’s slow heavy breathing was all he heard aside from the tick of pipes heating up and the distant rumble of the furnace kicking in. His almond eyes turned down to his friend. Ever since he met Sebastian he had slowly come to a conclusion about himself as a person that had all but been negligible before that. The moment he met Sebastian is around the same time he and his wife started having their problems. Their daughter came after, which kept him in the relationship. But as he slipped away from his wife, he found himself becoming closer and closer to Sebastian. 

As if some invisible line that connected them was shortening, drawing them in to each other. However, at the time, Sebastian was with his wife and she was all he could think of. So while Joseph lingered around him like a satellite, Sebastian took no notice. Joseph could not express why he loved him so much. But the feeling was irrefutably there. He remembered feeling something vaguely similar to his own wife. But Sebastian is much more… powerful. A breath, a touch, a soft spoken work can be taken for granted by everyone especially in seemingly innocuous situations such as casual conversation or listening to breathing in a silent room. Joseph let the lingering pleasure of every encounter stay with him as if he were possessed by it. 

He hid it well. No one ever made mention of anything out of sorts about his relationship with Sebastian. Not even his wife, who knows him better than everyone else… with the exception of Sebastian. But Sebastian had his own life… his own feelings. To him, Joseph is probably just a friend. A partner. Nothing more. It made him sad as he ran the cloth around Sebastian’s mouth, watching the way his lips reacted to the touch, a jealousy he didn’t want to feel rearing up inside him. 

He wished things were different. But simply wishing things were different was a waist of energy and time. He sat back on his calves and sighed. He wanted Sebastian. He wistfully imagined on a number of occasions the feeling of his arms around him. His hands touching him all over. His mouth on his. As he thought this he looked down at Sebastian’s face. He looked so handsome. Joseph’s heart skipped a beat just looking at him. Despite the anger and sadness he felt his own passionate feelings spiraling. He leaned over on impulse, which scared him because he had never done things on impulse. He was very methodical until this moment. He placed his hands on either side of Sebastian’s head and lowered his face to his, trembling with desire and need. He wanted so badly to kiss him, right on the cusp of touching he dangled. He couldn’t do it. 

Force was never an issue. He would never be forced to love this man. Whatever he is. Not when it came so naturally on its own. It was that he could never put himself on Sebastian because their personal situations obligated it not happen. That and the fact that Joseph was sure Sebastian didn’t feel the same way. And then the extremely suggestive matter that Sebastian is in turmoil over the accident. It would be unfair to open this sort of thing now when he is so vulnerable. Something wet hit Sebastian’s face.   
Joseph looked at the splash of wetness sliding down Sebastian’s cheek. Be brought a finger up to lightly trace at it with his finger, wiping it away. It was then that he realized it was a tear from his own eyes as another fell on Sebastian’s face and momentarily blurred his vision. He sat up and roughly removed his glasses and wiped at his eyes. 

“Damn… Seb…” Joseph whispered with a bit of a cry in his voice. He felt as though he would burst and bleed all over him if he stayed there anymore. He stood up, stifling the sniffling and moaning until he could get to his room or something. He hated to cry for any reason, much less for this but Sebastian is a special case. He couldn’t help it. His… sensitivity is one of the things that irritate his wife to breaking point apparently. He made it to the doorway when a groggy mutter sounded from the dimly light room.

“Seph. Joseph.” Sebastian said but was steadily breathing. Slow and deep. He was asleep again. For a moment Joseph wondered if he was being called or if Sebastian was dreaming. If he was dreaming, why would he be dreaming of him? 

“Seb?” He called lightly, in case he was being called back. But Sebastian continued the slow deep breathing without another word. Joseph turned to go to his room with a bit of disappointment on his face. Hating himself even more for what he was considering to do if Sebastian didn’t abandon this destructive path he was walking.


	2. Moment of Sober

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sebastian wakes on the futon with a massive hangover. However sobriety has brought back all sorts of things he is still trying to fight off. The one thing that has been different from the moment he had fallen into oblivion is that Joseph has extended his hand to help. Sebastian doesn't want help... or thinks he doesn't. He doesn't want to burden Joseph anymore than he already has. So he dives into a new case given to him by his superior. But he is getting edgy, the ghosts of recent past are starting to creep up on him and he is in desperate need of a drink.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a feeling this story is going to be one big text book cliche... damn my lack of originality.

There was a pounding ache in the temples that brought him back from sleep. There was a voice talking in the background but it was rippling, as if he was listening to it through a wall of water. He struggled, like a person trying to sit up when they’re tied to a bed, to pull himself from limbo to make sense of the voice. The words were jumbled, foggy. He couldn’t understand the words. Like a different language. Though it was soft and polite, if meek and sad.

Yet for the strangeness of it, the voice was familiar and it called him back to awareness. As if it were the lighthouse in a turbulent storm to his wreckage of a ship trying to make land and out of danger. He moved his head and everything spun out of control, yet the natural observer in him, being the detective he is, he was still making out random words of the speaker though his physical body whirled like a top behind his dry closed eye lids. 

“…is she? ... she like the doll I gave… I wasn’t trying to… Honey, please…“ 

Sebastian’s eyes slowly opened and an instant sickness tightened his gut. He thought he would vomit for the throb in his head and the spinning in his stomach. He clenched his eyes shut again. 

“I don’t think so… she is worth every dime to me!” The soft voice became harder, if only slightly. Sebastian could still hear the submissiveness in the voice. “No, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…’

Sebastian coughed and tried to open his eyes again and forced himself to sit up on the bed. It took a few more moments of re-acclimatizing physical and mental awareness on the plane of the living before he could properly open his eyes and take everything in without blinding pain and nausea crippling him. He grimaced as he looked around. There was a desk with a laptop on it, some file cabinets, some family photos and a cup of what looked like pens sitting next to the external hard that sat just next to the desk, a thin layer of dust clinging to it and floating in the air. The morning sun, given the way the light was coming through the window, caught the floating specks and he could see why it was so hard to keep things dust free in this house. 

“Sebastian… “The voice in the distance said a little cautiously. “You have heard me speak about him before. He is my partner. He needed a place to stay and I let him sleep on the futon in my office.” He said defensively. “Of course I didn’t! I didn’t! No…” 

Joseph. It took a second for some flashes of the night before to come back to him. He knew he went to a bar, there was some altercations with a few pissed off bikers and ample threats of hostility made. Sebastian couldn’t remember everything but he did recall that Joseph had pulled him out of there. One of the bikers had dirty things in mind when it came to Joseph. Drunk or not, he would never let anyone hurt Joseph. He was all he had left to protect. 

He could only remember a brief moment after that. The moment he leaned out Joseph’s car door to vomit on the road and Joseph’s small but strong hand grabbing on to his arm to keep him inside the car. This isn’t the first time Joseph had gone out of his way to help him. And Sebastian was well aware that he pretended not to remember everything. He didn’t recall EVERYTHING… but he remembered enough to make it clear that he was being an asshole and owed Joseph more than just a thank you. However he couldn’t make himself do it. It would be admitting he is a problem to his partner and he had a reputation to think of. Oh, screw the reputation. Everyone knows what happened and if his behavior is erratic they will just say it is because of the loss of Myra and Lilly. 

Sebastian never let things become a crutch for him but… the bottle had been a crutch for losing everything and then… he ignores the crutch while the bottle had drawn him in. Joseph. It was easier to forget everything than to face it… face the pain. Over and over. His eyes started to sting while the burnt image of fire and his daughters screaming face peered out of his window at him flashed in his mind and he pressed his fingers into his eyes hard to stem the flow. He was too sober… starting to remember.

*//*//*

It took a little while for Sebastian to crawl off the futon and reassemble his clothing and get to his feet. Apparently Joseph’s wife was really giving him a hard time about a wide variety of things, from letting a drunk into their house and buying a lavishly expensive doll for his daughter that she felt their child hardly needed and that he was trying to compensate for his long work hours and lack of ‘being there’ for her and their daughter. 

Sebastian could not believe how she was talking to Joseph. She could be heard from the receiver all the way down the hall and he could only imagine Joseph pulling the phone away from his ear occasionally and only putting it back to answer. Furthermore why is he letting her do that to him? Sebastian knew she ‘wore the pants’ but this wasn’t what he expected, she was downright abusive to him. He had a feeling Joseph was even a little afraid to either hang up or tell her to shut up for fear that if she would come right back and beat him to within an inch of his life. Sebastian doubted neither that Joseph would let it go that far nor that his wife would since she is married to a police detective, but still. Plainly put, she sounded to be a serious bitch and he wondered why Joseph was even with her to begin with. 

He stumbled out to the hall through the beaded curtain with his clothing tucked under his arm and into the kitchen. Sebastian’s senses were on high and he clearly smelled the coffee that had been brewed. He grimaced in the full glare of the kitchen. On the table there was two settings out; cups, plates, utensils. One set looked to have already been in use. A half-eaten toast with thin slices of some dark stuff lay abandoned. A full cup of coffee and a plate full of… it looked like seaweed to him but he wasn’t really sure. It was a serving of whatever Joseph had put on his toast. 

Sebastian mused for a second that the second set was meant to be for him and for some curious reason it made him smile. He was not the most sentimental man… not for a while anyway… but this was the first time he had let something so normal and trivial move him like that. He leaned over and considered trying a piece of the seaweed stuff but when he reached for it, his stomach rolled. He grimaced and clutched his stomach. Perhaps not right now then. He picked up the coffee cup from the extra set on the table and went to the coffee machine and poured himself a cup. He sipped it and it was really good. 

Off to the side was a black and gold package that read Bontain Nagoya Blend coffee. Even the coffee is Japanese. He could see little things of the sort that lined everything. A little dish that had chopsticks in it. The sugar packets were Splenda… common in America. The coffee creamer; Coffeemate. Also common. He wasn’t sure what sort of sugar was in the bowl. He could still hear Joseph talking but he must have moved to another room, clear indicator that he was using his mobile. He sipped as he crossed the kitchen and into the living room. It was okay in size. Enough room for a family of three and no more.

On the other side of the room there was a couple of doors. The one across from him was clearly the entrance. The one nearest, perhaps a closet. Not sure about the other one. Maybe a bathroom and that is where Joseph went. He walked into the living room and stood about arm’s length away from the door he assumed was a bathroom. He listened as he took another sip of coffee. He was listening for the sound of a voice but heard nothing. To his right was a set of carpeted stairs that led to a second level and a narrow hallway next to it that led to… believe it or not… even more doors and a presumably open space around the corner as light spilled onto the wooden floor. He padded barefooted down the narrow hall and lingered a little to look at the photos that hung from the wall. He could point out Joseph easily, his youthful attractive face in a great smile as he held a small girl who looked amazingly like him. A woman in a few photos must be Joseph’s wife. She too was attractive if a bit haughty looking. 

He heard movement down at the end of the hall where he was going and he heard something fall. A sigh came from that room and a rustle of clothing, a soft shadow moving across the gleaming dark wood floor. That must be where Joseph is. He wondered if it was his and his wife’s room. Just how much space do they have?

“Yes. I understand. When will you be home? I see. Well I will see you then… yes. I love you. Goodbye.” Sebastian heard a blip sound and the unmistakable sigh of frustration. He turned the corner and nearly ran into Joseph who was coming to the corner from the other side. The surprised look on Joseph’s face was priceless. He looked like a deer caught in headlights for a moment before he realized who was in front of him.

“Seb… I honestly didn’t think you’d be up by now. Are you… feeling better?” He asked his cheeks flushed a little, so uncharacteristic of him. Sebastian tried like hell to pretend that he didn’t have a hangover but… he knew, with as good a detective as Joseph is, it would be stupid and pointless. To compensate, he took a sip of the coffee.

“This coffee is great.” His voice was croaky. Like a frog. Sebastian can see questions and perhaps an argument or two rising up in the shine of Joseph’s eyes and he looked away from him. He didn’t want to be interrogated. Not now… not ever. And given everything that Joseph has done for him, Sebastian knew he should be able to afford to give him truthful answers. But if answers were currency, he would be the greediest miser ever. Admitting he had a problem would be admitting he needed help. And Sebastian Castellanos, the pride of the KCPD did not need help from anyone.

“Did you eat?” Joseph asked. Sebastian shook his head. Relieved. 

“I am not thinking food would agree with me right now, buddy. Where’s the loo?” He asked, turning away from the smaller man. Joseph teetered on reaming him out for his actions of the night before. But the further Sebastian got away from him the harder it got to speak up; that and the fact that Sebastian probably heard his conversation at some points with his wife which must have been uncomfortable for him and embarrassing for Joseph. Thankfully Sebastian didn’t mention it. And for that, Joseph neglected to mention the night before and was a little concerned about why Sebastian had never bothered to inquire how he got to Joseph’s house. 

“It’s the second door around the corner to the right. Seb… I…” Joseph paused for a moment. Sebastian was looking at the photo of Joseph with his daughter again, a strange expression on his face. 

“Has anyone told you how creepy it is that your daughter looks exactly like you?” He said offhandedly and to his surprise Joseph laughed. It was a sort of musical laugh, a tinkling that was pleasing to the ears. Somehow seeing the smiling and hearing laughter made him feel better in the heart. He smiled himself and just for a moment he forgot about the next bottle of gin. 

“Yeah. Poor kid…” Joseph said a little sadly. He wasn’t sure why it bothered him. He knew Sebastian was kidding about the statement yet… he felt guilty. Joseph though Seb was saying it because he unconsciously wanted to engage in conversation about Myra and Lilly. It could really be he thought it was creepy. Everyone tells him he and his daughter are two of a kind but no one ever used the word ‘creepy’ anywhere in context. 

Sebastian turned back and looked at Joseph. He looked like he was teetering on saying something. Joseph can see the tongue working behind his teeth as if he was silently working out the right words to say. Instead he looked away taking a sip of the coffee as he headed to the appropriate door to the bathroom. 

“Can I get a lift to work?” Sebastian asked, as if he needed too. His car was parked near the bar from the night before and he had no cash on him to call a cab or ride the bus. Plus he knew Joseph would do it. Joseph is a good guy. Dependable, resourceful, kind. “Crutch” was nearly at the forefront of Sebastian’s inner monologue of his partner… no… friend’s positive attributes, but the word never reached sound in his mind. 

“Of course.” Joseph said. He wanted to tell Sebastian he was worried about him. Perhaps that is what Sebastian seen in his eyes to make him flee to the safety of the bathroom. Perhaps it’s the reason why he wouldn’t lock gazes with him for more than a few seconds. It was as if Sebastian was hiding something… afraid Joseph would see it in his eyes if he looked at him too long, feel naked and exposed. Joseph knew Sebastian would rather swallow ground glass than ever be viewed as weak.

Joseph walked out to the kitchen to sit at his cold breakfast and did not feel like eating it anymore. Sebastian didn’t want people to see the anguish in his face so he numbed the pain with alcohol. Didn’t Sebastian know that grief is normal? Expected? He assuredly knew because a couple of cases they solved together had to do with grief driven atrocities. Sebastian knew he had to deal with it and that running from it was only going to drive him crazy. Doesn’t he see that? Didn’t Sebastian know that Joseph wants to help him? Doesn’t he realize Joseph cares about him?

The answer to these questions clung to Joseph’s tongue like a bitter taste; a reminder that Sebastian will never understand what he feels inside… Joseph sighed as he got up and tossed his uneaten food into the trash and somberly went to the upstairs bathroom to get ready for work. As he passed the bathroom on the way to the stairs he could hear the shower water running and Sebastian sobbing from within. 

*//*//*

On the way to work they stopped at a drive through coffee stop and grabbed a cup. Joseph decided not to say anything about what he had heard in the bathroom. Sebastian looked drawn and tired. The ride to the KCPD station was a quiet one. Joseph didn’t even bother turning on the radio. He still had this feeling though that Sebastian wanted to say something. He wasn’t sure if it was positive or negative. But it was the same feeling he got in his hallway. It was the same feeling he got in his home office while Seb was drunk out of his mind. Like the life force that makes up everything Sebastian is was prodding at him lightly, tentatively. 

Once in the station they had made their way to the office, Sebastian had finished his coffee. He had dropped the empty cup in the waste basket behind the visitor’s reception desk and immediately went to the old coffee makers in the lounge near their office to drink that swill that Joseph refuses to touch. He sucked down coffee after coffee as if it were water. 

Seb seemed moody all day as he picked through boring case files to tally up a report on a missing tourist. It was clear to Sebastian that the tourist ran away. It was all clear given the girls past history of elopement and the abusive nature of the family to which she belonged. It was a waste of their time, she is nineteen years old, legally an adult, if she is found after her parents file a missing person’s report, and she refuses to go home it will have made all their efforts to find her mute. End of case. Joseph could see Seb was getting edgy and was about to ask him if he wanted to take a break and… god forbid, refresh his coffee. Perhaps coax him to talk a little. But fate intervened. Their boss came in and gave them a new case file while eyeing Sebastian closely. There were two files for one case and he handed one to both men. 

“The craziest shit these days.” He said with a chuckle. “I have a boat load of this shit coming your way. You may want to refresh that coffee, Castellanos. You and your boy here will be on this one like stink on shit, I am tellin you. The damnedest things people think up and commit. I am getting too old for this.” The man was in his early sixties, balding and fat around the middle. A hint of accent, perhaps New York, came out in his speech. 

“Can you give us the general idea of what we are looking at?” Joseph asked as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose as he swiveled in his chair to face the Captain. Sebastian kept his eyes on the file folder. As if something on it reminded him of something long forgotten. His fingers traced idly on the smooth dark brown cover.

“Okay what I handed you is statements from surviving patients and nurses from the mental hospital up north. What we get is that some doctor went nuts and started killing everyone. The nuts and the nurses. Some got out but they were all messed up in the head. I mean the nurses were too. They were convinced that a ghost was killing everyone. They would never get a clear view of the killer, he just moved from one person to the next in the blink of an eye.” He could see that the two detectives needed to take it in but there was no time. 

“Look, there really isn’t time to lollygag on this. The killer has vanished. I want you to dig through those witness statements and see if there is anything useful. I have security feeds and profiles on every doctor there and a body count of all the victims. “

“This doesn’t seem like a run of the mill homicide, sir. Maybe a special team like the Ghostbusters would be better.” Sebastian pushed the file away. “Or perhaps some sleep.”  
“Are you lit, Detective Castellanos?” The captain asked earnestly. 

“Like a light bulb if you can get lit on caffeine.” He said with a sardonic smirk drinking the cold dregs at the bottom of his paper coffee cup.

“We’ll look the files over, sir.” Joseph intruded. He was slightly annoyed at Sebastian’s attitude at the moment and didn’t want him to get in trouble with the captain or they would not get the case and Joseph wanted him to take it. He needed to keep Sebastian invested in something so perhaps he won’t think of alcohol… or his wife and child. 

“No screwing around. You may be the precincts gold star but I won’t take mouthing off from you. High flyer or not, you are not beyond reproach. And I do fly higher than you.” He said as he pushed the files with the tip of his fingers back toward Sebastian. His words were clipped but he said it so casually you would think he merely remarked about the “ho-hum lackadaisical” day he has had. Without waiting for a retort he turned and left the office. As soon as the door shut, Joseph looked at Sebastian’s side profile. The muscle in his jaw was ticking.

“Seb – what is going on? You can’t talk like that to our boss!” 

Without giving an answer he stood up and tossed the heavy trench coat his wife gave him before she died over his shoulder and slipped it on with ease. He scooped up the file and the paper coffee cup and walked to the door.

“You coming?” He asked over his shoulder. Joseph stared at him for a moment. 

“Where? We’re supposed to look over the files-‘Joseph started to say but Sebastian turned around and covered the distance between them in two long strides. Joseph instinctively felt on guard and was practically sitting on his desk as Sebastian leaned over him. He had to admit he was afraid in that moment. But really… would Seb hurt him?

“Since you saw fit to take me from that bar last night and left my car in the parking lot, those bikers probably bashed the shit out of it. That was Myra’s car… you know that, Seph. If they smashed it to hell… I… not only that, my cards and money and everything is in my car. You’re taking me to go get it. I will look at these files at home. I have a headache.” Joseph kept his face turned away. For a moment Sebastian had reminded him of his wife. Although she would have been shrieking like a spoiled brat. Sebastian spoke barely above a whisper and it made Joseph cringe to think he could nearly feel the teeth in the bite of his tone. So he was fully aware of everything last night… was he aware of … everything? Or was it just a moment of coherence? Somehow Seb made him feel worse than his wife ever did just then. 

“Then you know I got you out of that bar for a good reason, Seb.” 

“Yeah, the bikers may have gotten shot- or you may have become-“ Sebastian said with a laugh in his tone as he turned to his desk and opened the side cabinet and although Joseph could not see exactly what it was Sebastian had pulled out of the desk, he did see a silver flash. He purposefully didn’t finish that statement. It wasn’t the first time he heard someone make sexually derogatory remarks about Joseph, and usually Sebastian stuck up for him… not used it against him. Perhaps he did it to let Joseph know indirectly that he remembered some of the night before. 

“Sebastian! What is that?!” Joseph suddenly spoke with a mixture of exasperation and fear. He strode over to him, grabbed the shoulder of his jacket to turn him around. As Sebastian fully faced him the silver flask vanished into an inside pocket of his coat. Joseph’s face grimaced and he attempted to reach into Sebastian’s coat to grab at the flask. However Sebastian would not have it. He merely grabbed Joseph’s wrists hard and twisted his arm a little.

“Jesus, don’t nag me. I’ll forget you did that. I’ll be at the car.” Sebastian muttered as he looked down at the slight discomfort in Joseph’s face. He suddenly felt guilty and released him. A flash of Joseph’s smiling face and his young daughter, with the same attractive smile as her father flashed through his mind. At first Sebastian wasn’t going to say anything. He was going to turn and walk away, embarrassed at his reaction. This isn’t like him. Not at all. He didn’t want to take his problems out on Joseph, god knows the man has enough to contend with… especially with that wife of his. 

“I worry about you, Sebastian. You’re my friend.” Joseph said quietly. Almost as if he didn’t mean Sebastian to hear it. Something ran cold in Sebastian then. A leaden feeling that he perhaps was losing sight of himself, and that everyone else could see it but him. Was Joseph trying to keep his head above water? He looked over his shoulder at the smaller man. 

“Don’t worry about me.” His tone much softer than before. He turned and walked out of the door. Joseph heard him… as he stared at the floor sadly. He looked up at the closing door and whispered.

“No promises.” Before grabbing up his jacket, the case files and followed Sebastian out to the car.


	3. I'm with you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This new case is causing some strange things to happen. Not only is the case itself strange but Sebastian is feeling strange. It has to be the case... what else would make him feel this way?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just gonna say a few things I have been thinking while writing this.
> 
> Truth be told this won't be exactly like the game. Its just gonna go off in whatever direction my free writing decides to take it. So there are likely to be things in this story that have nothing to do with the game or will be a very different turn of events from the game. I have read many ideas about what actually happened and I like to draw my own conclusions anyway. 
> 
> I am sure that won't put anyone off wanting to read a joseb story no matter what happens. I hope you guys don't mind that this is actually going to be a 'story' and not just a few chapters to the smut... I have no doubt that smut will happen... but its just not gonna happen like that. Story... and smut... I like to have potatoes with the meat. 
> 
> I write the characters the way I see them and not everyone will agree with how I see the characters and how I portray them. I am myself a very emotion driven person and tend to let that bleed into characters I am writing. 
> 
> thank you all for the support! I am enjoying writing this.

Somehow the radio was on when Joseph got to his car and Sebastian was sitting in the passenger seat fiddling with the radio stations, apparently looking for music to his taste. Joseph got in and started patting his pocket looking for his keys and then noticed them dangling from the ignition. He for a moment thought that Sebastian had taken his keys.  
“Seb, did you take my keys?” He asked a little irritated.

“No. You left them there in the ignition. Thought I would scan the channels until you came out. You don’t mind do you?” Sebastian asked earnestly. For a moment Joseph thought that Sebastian was pulling his leg. He grinned a little and slumped in the chair. 

“You took my keys. I never leave them in the ignition.” Joseph said with a knowing smile and was surprised when Sebastian didn’t look back with that ‘aw you found me out’ sideways smirk. In fact, Sebastian raised his brow line and shrugged.

“I am afraid I will have to prove you wrong. You always keep your keys in your pocket. You proved it when you came in the car when you put your hand into your right pocket. You left your keys in the ignition.” Sebastian told him. He watched the way Joseph sort of turned pale. He looked confused as he stared down at the ignition with the black tag dangling from the silver key. Some sort of horror came over Joseph as if thoughts of what could have happened if he left the key in the ignition and someone made off with the car. He was licking and biting his bottom lip like he always did when he got particularly antsy. 

“I’m kidding.” Sebastian lied. “They must have fallen out of your pocket. I picked them up as a joke.” He could see Joseph’s anxiety lessen and that was the point of the lie. He really hadn’t taken the keys. Joseph had in fact left them in the ignition. He watched Joseph come down into his comfort space after a fast shoot upward into panic mode. He just looked at him. The way the parking garage lights glinted off his glasses and his small lips. 

“You are serious? You found them and took them? I didn’t leave them in the ignition?” Joseph asked softly as he started the car. 

“Yes. I am sorry. I wasn’t trying to be an asshole. I was just-“Sebastian said and reached over to touch Joseph’s arm and barely registered the slight jump of the younger mans’ bicep to his touch. “Your wife would have been pissed I am thinking.” Sebastian wasn’t sure if it was appropriate to talk about this. But he wanted to let Joseph know he understood.

“My wife?” Joseph asked curiously although he had to have felt that his conversations were overheard and though one-sided, it was plainly obvious that she was a nasty piece of work. 

“I heard the way she was talking to you.” Sebastian had enough sense to look ashamed that he had overheard. He wasn’t trying too hard not to hear. Joseph turned his face away for a moment. He expected Sebastian to ask him why he let her get away with it. It wasn’t easy to explain. She knew things about him. And if he… put his foot down, to hell with his dirty laundry, she would not allow him to see his daughter. It was ultimately his child that kept him from telling her he had had enough. 

“She was just in a bit of a mood. She isn’t always like that.” It was clear that Joseph wanted to stop talking about it and Sebastian dropped the subject by looking down at the file he just opened on his lap. He wasn’t looking at it. He had seen Myra do that after Lilly’s death. Instead of opening up and talking to him about what was happening in her head, she turned inward. If she didn’t want to talk about it, which was never, she would turn her head away just as Joseph had done and like clockwork Sebastian let Joseph close the door on him as he did Myra. 

Something inside him stirred and he felt the creeping monster of grief trying to rear its head again. He swallowed once, twice and it didn’t seem to be working. Thinking of her in the room crying all the time, losing her mind and he couldn’t do a goddamned thing to stop it. She was given a missing persons case, simple, nothing to really rattle her when she came back from a short reprieve. She seemed okay. A missing persons report usually meant a lot of searching papers and talking to people who ‘last seen the victim’ and statistics pointed out that the victim, a male in his early sixties known for having several marital affairs at a time probably flew to another country to see his umpteenth conquest. No sweat. 

Or so they thought. She went missing and except for the few months after that he drowned everything else out in his bottle. A flash of Lilly’s small hands slapping at a melting blackened window, screaming and crying, trying to escape the flames and smoke raked his already tender brain mercilessly. He flinched as if physically slapped. He closed his eyes and grimaced. Tears came to his eyes and he turned his head to the window, trying to hide it. His hand intuitively went to the flask before he realized it was empty and he then started tapping at the door trying to get his mind to cooperate with him. 

“Seb…” Joseph said, worried by the expression on his partner’s face, he started to pull over. He knew a little too well the look on Sebastian’s face when he had flashbacks.  
“No, I am okay. Just keep going.” 

“Sebastian,’ Joseph prodded carefully. He didn’t want to open any wounds, especially with the way he has been lately with the drinking. But he didn’t want Sebastian to think he couldn’t come to him if he needed it. “You know you can talk to me. I don’t like to see you like this. And shutting it out isn’t going to help you.” 

“Isn’t that the kettle calling the teapot black?” Sebastian said as he shook his head. “You hardly talk to me about your marital problems, Joseph. And guys don’t typically ‘talk’ about feelings and emotions. We bottle them up. It makes us stronger. You know that.” He looked at Joseph earnestly. Joseph was shocked. 

“That’s a bit of a stereotypical remark isn’t it? Not all men have to hold in their feelings and emotion. And I applaud your choice of words since you have clearly done just that… bottle it up.” Joseph snapped. He was irritated that Sebastian threw him under the bus to escape the notion of having to face the fact that he has an issue. “And my problems with my wife have not driven me to drink, Seb!”

“No… because your wife still exists. You still have a daughter to go home too no matter what the hell you think of your wife.” Sebastian turned away, wiping his lips with the back of his hand. He wanted a drink so bad right now that he could feel a dull pulsing in his temples. Joseph nagging him and trying to open him up was grating his nerves, fraying them. So much to the point that he was ready to tell Joseph to quit being a hypocrite and take care of his own problems instead of trying to save a man who had almost nothing to live for now. 

“Sebastian… there is no evidence that-“

“Drop it. I don’t want to talk about it, Joseph.” 

Joseph looked back to the road as he bit his lip. Sebastian is fighting it; tooth and nail. It was frightening to think that he could get so far and then topple off the edge. And that could mean lots of things. Failure in work and being fired… no income, nothing to support himself and his bad habit. He will be thrown onto the street. And if Joseph knew Sebastian enough, he would refuse help. And when he has hit rock bottom, when there isn’t an inch of room left to fall, he will take the only way out of his misery that he can. The thought made Joseph grit his teeth. Joseph won’t let it happen. If Sebastian hates him for his interference, so be it. 

“Well shit…’ Sebastian said in a much different tone, as if he just hadn’t had a little heated exchange with his younger partner about sensitive subjects. “This case file is creepy stuff… listen to this. ‘I saw a shadow. I can’t remember everything about the shadow, only that I had seen his face somewhere… or what was left of it. The thing that really stuck out was the blood. So much blood spraying everywhere and no one could see what was causing it unless the shadow moved. I could taste it there was so much. And… barbed wire… why would there be barbed wire? Flies and maggots all over rotten corpses. But… there were no rotten corpses. All the bodies had been alive no more than five minutes before; they wouldn’t rot that fast. So where did all the maggots and flies come from? Th-There was a big guy-the one killing everyone… with half a face. His tongue was hanging down like he didn’t have a jaw and his head tilted to the side like his neck was broken. He couldn’t have been real. People with those injuries don’t just get up and walk around! His tongue was abnormally large too. I am not sure why this information is relevant… but… the scariest thing about him was… I think it was Doctor Lancey. Oh… Dr. Lancey’s name is Edmund. Edmund Lancey. Now I have been a nurse in that hospital for forty years… Dr. Lancey practiced for thirty before he died six months ago. Disappeared was the original report, but they never found him and he was presumed dead.” Sebastian looked up from the files and slowly toward a somewhat pale Joseph. 

“So, she was seeing a disfigured apparition of a deceased doctor?” Joseph asked, deciding to drop the previous conversation given that Sebastian’s mind was focused… much more himself; like before the accident. 

“According to her this Dr. Lancey was the one that was doing all the killing.” Sebastian flipped a few pages to see glossy black and white photos of some of the scenes. There was blood everywhere. Little white squirming things on what looked like severed limbs… maggots and blood. This verified some of the nurses’ ravings but it didn’t explain her seeing a man that was presumed dead, unless he never was dead to begin with.

“Perhaps she imagined what she saw-‘Joseph supplied with a theory. Sebastian shook his head.

“I am not sure. She has some of the details correct.”

“But that could just mean that she was a victim of fear induced hallucinations. It is possible. If she thinks about this doctor often, it may have been what triggered her to see his appearance in the murderer.” Joseph answered earnestly. “Her fear of not escaping the murderer and her death may have forced his image in her head. We should talk to her, ask her if she had some… affair with him or…”

“Can that really happen?” Sebastian asked. Joseph nodded.

“Do you remember one of the first cases we worked on together as partners? A thirty eight year old mother of two killed her husband because he pretended to break in to the bedroom to ‘rape’ her as a kink session? Her children said they heard her screaming ‘no daddy, please stop’ and she said she swore she saw her father… not her husband.” 

“There is still a debate over that case though. It is possible that he did mean to rape her given the attire. Rape in any sense of the word is wrong. She panicked. She said she did not discuss his role playing a rapist with him and that is why she flipped out.” Sebastian added.

“And because she didn’t know he was coming in to role play rapist/victim with her she slipped into a fear induced hallucination that her father was coming to rape her. To this day she says she really did see her father.” Joseph said. “So it is possible that this nurse… you didn’t say her name… didn’t actually see this Dr. Lancey.” 

“Yeah but… there are some details here that make no sense. ‘All the bodies had been alive no more than five minutes before’ that is some strange shit… as a matter of fact. I think I remember this Dr. Lancey. I remember the report on the television about him going missing around the same time… ‘He trailed off. Myra’s investigation. And there was absolutely no way Joseph didn’t catch that. He looked sideways at his partner. She vanished right around the time she was investigating Dr. Lancey’s disappearance. The look on Joseph’s face told him everything. He did recall the incident and he had connected it to Myra.

“Seb… “

“She was presumed dead too… Joseph, because they couldn’t find any trace if her. What if… what if she is alive?!” Sebastian looked excited. His eyes over bright as he looked at Joseph, clutching the files in his hands tight.

“You can’t be sure the incidents are related. She was investigating that disappearance… but that may not be what happened to her.” Joseph said calmly… gently.

“I want to find her! Even if she… is dead… I need to see her!”

“Sebastian, this isn’t a good idea!” Joseph said, starting to get a little uneasy at the determined shine of his partners’ eyes. As if he were watching Sebastian toss himself headlong over a cliff with nothing but jagged rocks below. The landing a paradox of the hard truth he was sure to find if he discovered the whereabouts of Myra’s body. Joseph liked Myra. She was a sweet woman. She was a great fit for Sebastian. It made a little unwanted pang of jealousy rear up in him, but he could not deny it. She was right for Seb. Lilly was the perfect little girl. A perfect little family. Unlike his own. 

“Come on… if someone took your little girl from you, and then the police decided, because they couldn’t find her, to pronounce her dead, and six months later, you get a lead that may bring you to where she is, would you not want to go and see? Even if the answer meant that you would find her dead? Wouldn’t you want closure?” Sebastian reasoned, and despite what he said earlier… his voice was dripping with emotion. But Joseph got this feeling that Sebastian was not trying to rationalize it to him… Joseph felt like Sebastian was trying to make his desire seem justified to himself. Sebastian had to know Myra is dead. Joseph didn’t want him to get his hopes up just to be let down again. He couldn’t bear to see that pain on his face; that haunted and hurt look in his eyes.

“I would want to find her, yes.” Joseph said.

“Then have my back, Joseph. You’ve always had it… don’t abandon me now. I can’t think of anyone else in this fucked up place I would rather have at my side when I find her body.”  
For just a few lingering seconds Joseph was quiet. There would never be a time in his career with this man, and after that he’d ever not be there for him. He would have to be dead to stop watching his back. He wasn’t sure how comfortable Sebastian would feel knowing this for a fact but it allowed Joseph to keep stepping in. It made him throw himself in harm’s way to protect Sebastian. He just wished he could have started before Lilly died and Myra went missing. Then maybe he wouldn’t be stuck dealing with a drunkard that never smiled; a man who was always business with work and drowning his woes in booze.

“I’m with you.” Joseph said softly. To his surprise Sebastian reached over and grabbed his gloved hand that rested lightly on the steering wheel and squeezed it in appreciation. He seemed to linger around his fingers for a moment, Sebastian’s thumb running over the top of Joseph’s clutching left hand that rested on the wheel. It made a pleasant feeling spread through him although it wasn’t meant to be so.

“I know you are.” Sebastian returned to his place in his seat, reading and sharing information where needed and kept glancing at Joseph’s left gloved hand. Joseph noticed but never inquired why.

*//*//*

The next day dawned wet and cold. Sebastian walked into the office five minutes after his shift was set to begin. He grimaced at the lights and turned a set of them off. Joseph was at his desk looking at him. A mixture of disapproval and sadness on his face. He could clearly see Sebastian drank again last night. He could see it on his pale sweaty face.  
Joseph dropped the light file on his desk and his hands went to his hips in a rather standoffish manner. Then dropped his arms. His wife always took that stance every time Joseph walked through the door. Every damned day it was the same thing, she always had something to complain and bitch at him for. Most of the time he didn’t deserve it. Scorn from his wife while his daughter is drenching him in love and appreciation. The part of him that automatically took his wife’s position in this relationship between himself and Sebastian felt nauseated and he wanted to slap himself for it.

“I see they didn’t take your car for a joyride and help themselves to your money and credit cards.” Joseph tried to keep his tone casual but it was difficult. Without taking his coat off Sebastian flopped down in his chair and laid his head on the desk. Joseph had pulled up to Sebastian’s car, which had stayed where he left it, no flat tires and no broken windows. Sebastian told Joseph he could leave, not to worry about him and pointblank refused to get in his car and go anywhere until Joseph left. 

“Why would they? It’s not like I have a Ferrari or something.” He said thickly. 

“Did you drink last night?” Joseph asked.

“Did your wife kick the shit out of you?” Sebastian countered and seen the angry glare in Joseph’s eyes. “Sorry but this is what will happen when you see fit to you nag me. I will nag you about shit you don’t want to talk about.”

“No she didn’t. Last night was a quiet night. She hardly spoke to me.” Joseph said. 

“… Then yes… I drank. As if you needed me to confirm your suspicions. Could you not talk so loud? My head is killing me.” 

It took a lot for Joseph to swallow back the tirade building up in his throat… he could feel his neck muscles gearing up to shout… like some monster was forcing its way up from his stomach to spew out his mouth and chew Sebastian apart. Frustration and helplessness battled with each other inside him and he could not do a damned thing about it… not now. 

“Did you look at the files more… or do you remember anything else?” Joseph asked as he reached back for his file. Sebastian took a few seconds to answer as he sat up and scrunched his eyes closed and blinked several times to try to clear them.

“Yeah… I read others statements… well, the ones that were worth reading. This nurse that said she saw the ghost, was pretty much echoed by everyone else who was alive to give statement.”

“I have addresses and history of this Dr. Lancey that the nurse spoke of. You have her name?” Joseph asked as he flipped through the files he was holding. 

“Uh… Her name was Bertha…Cobalt.”

“I think we should start by paying her a visit, don’t you think?” Joseph asked, surveying Sebastian and wondering if he was going to be able to do his job with this much of a hangover. However Sebastian stood up, scooped up his files and looked at Joseph.

“Before we visit Mrs. Cobalt… I want to stop at Larchwood Veteran’s Hospital. It’s along the way.” Sebastian turned toward the door. Joseph hesitated for a moment. Sebastian’s motivation and concentration did not seem to be affected by his hangover and drinking. Perhaps he was empowered by possible ties to Myra this case provided. Maybe this is why the Captain gave them this case to begin with. 

“Wouldn’t they have cleared the place by now?” Joseph asked as he walked up behind Sebastian to follow him out.

“Cleared it of the bodies, yes. But all the other evidence is still there and I called the morgue to hold the bodies and asked that the files from the autopsies be sent to our office.” Sebastian said and Joseph nodded. For all the problems in their personal lives, shared and separated, he felt more alive… more in tune with everything when he was walking side by side with Sebastian with purpose and intent in cracking a case. He felt like they were some sort of ‘Gotham Hero’s’ and no one could ever save the city unless they called of Castellanos and Oda… bit of boyhood superhero fantasies aside… this is what he wants to do for the rest of his life… and with this man beside him.

*//*//*

Why is it all homes for disabled people where strange things take place look like something out of a horror show? The hospital, meant for veterans, was lavish architecture. It looked more like the cannon design for a haunted house. So back droppish it appeared that Joseph was shocked not to see crows, and stormy clouds behind it, lightening flashing and thunder rumbling in the distance. They stood at the gate looking up at the mansion like building, built in the 1920’s, trailing plants that circled and climbed most everything crackled and scratched against the building’s walls and iron bars of the gate. It looked spooky.

“This makes you feel warm and invited doesn’t it?” Sebastian asked with a nervous laugh.

“It makes me feel like I am going over my wife’s parent’s house…” Joseph joked and was pleased to hear the genuine laugh derive from the nervous chuckle from before.

“If this is what it’s like going to your in-laws’ house… do feel free to forget to invite me, okay?” Sebastian smiled down at Joseph as he started pushing the gate open. For a moment he felt a strange sensation in him as Joseph’s smile played his lips. The feeling was familiar and yet foreign. He had never had a feeling like that… not while with Joseph. Sebastian covered the awkward feeling he just experienced by ducking under the police line and through the gate, holding the tape up as Joseph passed under it. He briefly recalled having down the same exact thing with Myra before they got married. 

He bit his lip and turned away from Joseph’s questioning look. Sebastian was a little overcome by strange and familiar feelings he had no time to work out right now. He and Joseph had a job to do. But as he covered the ground, looking at the old cobble stone set around the ivy trailed fountain that sat in the middle of the courtyard, he mused a little as he looked up at Joseph on the other side of the fountain. What would he do without him? Without Joseph? He is all he has left now. If it came down to it… what would happen if he lost Joseph? His bottle would be his only friend… and the bottle, while numbing everything for a little while, was unforgiving when it came to the morning after. With a friend like that, who needed enemies?

It was only then that he realized he had been standing still and staring at Joseph. The younger man seemed a little embarrassed and uncertain as he noticed Sebastian had been staring at him. Quite heavily too. 

“Is… is there something wrong?”

“No… no, sorry. Just kind of zoned out a little. Drank too much last night. I need to cut back.” Sebastian said with a matter of fact grin. Joseph approached him, looking up at him.

“You were looking at me… and moaning. Like you were in pain.” Joseph said. “You looked like you were going to cry and were very confused.” 

“What?” Sebastian didn’t even realize he was making a sound. Joseph looked very worried. Sebastian watched him put the tip of his middle finger of his left hand between his teeth and pulled his glove off. Joseph placed the back of his hand against Sebastian’s forehead obviously checking to see if he was feverish. Sebastian unconsciously noticed the lack of a wedding band on Joseph’s finger. 

“You seriously don’t recall moaning and the feeling of perhaps crying?” Joseph asked as he slipped the back of his fingers down over Sebastian’s cheek, liking the way the stubble felt against his skin. He managed to keep the look of pleasure off his face, or so he hoped. It was a great excuse to touch him… 

“No. I don’t recall. I’ll uh… I’ll go see a doctor or something later, okay? We have a job to do.” He said with as much appreciative casualty as he could muster, trying to ignore the similar feeling he received when Joseph touched him. It wasn’t so much his own body deciding to feel this way… but more like a chemical reaction to something Joseph was feeling. Sebastian gently took Joseph’s slender wrist and pulled his hand away from his face. It was an off and unfamiliar sensation that he was… in some way … afraid of. It was a weird feeling and it had to do with Joseph. Perhaps it was just that Joseph was so kind and gentle and Sebastian hadn’t had that sort of interaction since Myra vanished. But Sebastian didn’t want to liken her to Joseph. Like he had already done several times in the last couple days. 

“Okay. But if you really don’t feel well, I can interview Mrs. Cobalt myself. You just give the word okay?” Joseph said as if he neither noticed nor felt anything strange from Sebastian. Yet Sebastian was whirling. Maybe it’s this place? It’s got a weird vibe to it. 

“Deal.” Sebastian said as a continuous battle to rationalize what just happened to him continued inside his head and a determined mission aside from the one they were working on now, to not show Joseph he was struggling.


	4. Larchwood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new case given and it turns out to start unlike any they have ever ten on before. Strange things in the dark...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am not a detective so I am just guessing stuff they do. 
> 
> I am also sorry that it took so long to get this chapter done. had pink eye so I wasn't up for much of anything.

They looked about Larchwood Hospital for a little while before following directions from signs that hung from ceiling tiles that lead to the nurses’ station and the administration offices beyond. Some of the ceiling signs they passed, one read ‘visitors desk’ and one read ‘Leigthon Wing – Longterm Residential’ with arrows pointing in specific directions, some of the signs so gore stained that the words were almost negligible. 

The halls, confined and somewhat dark even with the lights on, gave a not so vague hint of oppressiveness. The sharp angle of the walls and wide gaping windows that were water stained and just plain filthy made the place feel even more cramped despite being able to look outside. It was like this place was designed to reflect its occupants PTSD and depression. A house for the mad. Sebastian could see why, if they weren’t so bad when they came in, the tenants of this hospital went out of their minds. Then he remembered… it wasn’t them. It was the Doctor supposedly that lost his mind and killed everyone. 

The hall they were in now is no different from the main lobby, covered in blood and overturned wheelchairs, tipped plants, an IV stand or two with half used bags of fluid in them. Tubes with needles that had once been in arms judging by the red stains on the tape at the ends just hang there… a grizzly scene straight out of a horror movie. A med cart, all the drawers open with apparently no medication taken. A light touch with Joseph’s gloved hand on the little metal locked box on the bottom of the cart they usually put the morphine and other narcotics in was sealed tight. Which means the attack was most assuredly not for the drugs. If it was, the assailant would have done everything to get little metal box out of the cart…even go so far as to wheel it out of the building. 

“Druggie looking for a fix is out of the question.” Sebastian said as he watched Joseph look over his shoulder. They got the feeling they were being followed. They’d felt that sensation before. The one that made you feel someone else’s eyes on your back like knives. The case reports of a ghost moving in the blink of an eye. Joseph and Sebastian are breathing now… but what about a few breaths from now? Will they find their throats slit like everyone else who died here?

“No. Most of the time druggies only want the narcotics. Their MO doesn’t usually involve homicide. Unless they came in here already hopped up. Depending on what they were rolling could mean the possibility of hallucinating, exaggerated movement, to where people in a state of fear would think they were moving quicker than they actually were.” Joseph said as they neared the nurses’ station. 

“Sort of surreal isn’t it? Almost unbelievable.” Sebastian mumbled. It was the same here. Files in a cabinet just behind the four and a half foot partition that blocked anyone but the nurses and doctors from getting behind the desk without a key was doused in a hefty dose of blood. Some dark pulpy stuff was in the center of the hip high door where something obviously impacted with it. Sebastian grimaced as he lowered into a crouch to look at it. He saw something out of the corner of his eye and instinctively reached up to take the small flash light that Joseph was handing him. This sort of thing is exactly why they worked so well together. 

“The only thing that makes the statements believable is… with as high a body count, the person they seen had to have been moving faster than normal. There were too many deaths. Which means there was very little reaction time, the killer could have killed two people before someone would have noticed and reacted. Naturally if someone sees danger they would flee in the other direction. These stains… in the wheelchairs; in the seats behind the nurses’ station. They never saw it coming. It’s like… they really had no time to react.” Sebastian looked closer at the mess on the door in front of him and could clearly see pulp and hair. With as much trauma to the head like that, the person, whoever it was that received this attack would have died immediately. 

“That doesn’t make sense. No one can move that fast. Even in a building full of sick or demented people, some others should have made it out. More than the ones that did. The nurses and CNA’s were killed. Doctors. They are upright and mobile. These are people who should have been more likely to escaped. There is only one explanation that could make this sensible or even somewhat plausible. That Dr. Lancey was not the one who was drugged. Perhaps everyone else in the building was drugged, made them sluggish and slow to respond, and that is why this Dr. Lancey was able to move so fast to them.” Joseph looked around him to see if he could validate his theory. Sebastian kept an open mind but somehow he didn’t think this was the case. He and Joseph eyed an overturned waste basket. A mess of tissue used plastic spoons, pill crushing packets with remnants of crushed pills still coating the inside, little plastic water cups and the even smaller paper pill cups. 

“Perhaps it was distributed with the daily dose of medicine. Most people who are used to receiving there pills here would not even think to check the cups.” Joseph said as he knelt down near the spilled basket. He looked bemused for a moment and stood up, sighing in irritation. 

“What is it?” Sebastian asked.

“I just thought… it is highly unlikely that they were drugged in this manner unless a nurse was involved too. And it doesn’t explain the fact that the nurses, doctors, orderly’s and cna’s were also attacked and killed.” Joseph knelt down again, pulling from his pocket a clean evidence bag to slip a used pill crush packet into it. “We can’t rule out the possibility. We can have this analyzed to see if anything unusual had been distributed.”

“An alternative may be that it was an aerosol pumped through the vents. We can have dogs come in and look for chemicals in the ventilation. I cannot smell anything unusual in the air so that could mean that if it was airborne that the toxin, if one was used, has dissipated. “Sebastian added. Joseph nodded. 

“Also a possibility. Without having thorough examination of the bodies and verification that anyone, even the living, had been drugged in any way, it would make assuming anything about how the assailant was able to kill his victims in this manner moot. We should look around a little more-‘ Joseph stopped talking as something heavy and clanging hit the ground somewhere down the adjoining hall with a sign hanging from the drop tiled roof that read ‘Lakewood Wing – Rehabilitation”. Joseph and Sebastian’s attention was taken down the hall, their eyes turned down the shadowy corridor in circumspect. 

They could not see anything from this end of the hall, only that some trollies had rolled across the floor lazily and the overhead light that did work flickered. The only other light offered was shadowed daylight filtering through the doorways and stretching across the hall floor. 

On instinct, the both drew their pistols. Sebastian hooked Joseph’s arm and pulled him back, making him follow. Joseph wasn’t sure whether to be insulted or touched by the action. Now was not the moment to dissect the deed when their suspect may still in fact be in the building. He flowed close behind Sebastian, hearing the man breathe; a slight whisper of his lungs expanding and exhaling through his parted lips. It was a technique used to calm the nerves. It was never easy to just go and see what a sound was around the corner when investigating a multiple homicide case. 

“Joseph… do you smell that?” Sebastian asked as he sniffed at the air. Joseph sniffed a little and could sense an odor of something metallic and a vague odor of rust. Like someone left a scouring pad in sink water too long. 

“I can smell it…’ He whispered, looking from side to side in each room they passed. Most of the rooms were heavily shadowed by divider curtains. Joseph would turn every few steps to make sure they weren’t followed as Sebastian swept before them with a keen and scanning eye. Joseph couldn’t trust anyone more than Sebastian in these situations, the man had a knack for sensing things before they happened. ‘It’s almost smells like an old water refinery smells. Old wet metal and stagnant water…” 

“It could possibly be a sewage pipe backed up into the building. We have been getting a fair bit of rain lately.” Sebastian said and he grimaced as a strong odor of rancid meat washed over him. It hit him like a blast to the face and he could suddenly hear Joseph gagging behind him. Sebastian turned and froze, his eyes slowly taking in a figure at least seven feet tall, powerfully built and… his head was hanging forward. It was supported at the jaw by metal brackets that fastened to something on its back, its white egg like orbs stared at the back of Joseph’s head. Sebastian came to himself and pointed his gun over Joseph’s head. As soon as his aim was set the thing was no longer there. Sebastian had not had time to take in the full extreme of the body but it most assuredly wasn’t anything like he had ever seen before. If it was human, then it was very severely disfigured… and evil. Sebastian was sure of it. 

Joseph had come up for air at the same time the gun was pointed over his head. He surveyed several things at once. The surprised look on Sebastian’s face. The way his pupils contracted when he focused on whatever it was he saw. And as soon as Sebastian seen whatever it was, the nauseating stench vanished. 

“What the fuck…” Sebastian spat as he again hooked Joseph’s arm and pulled him closer. Joseph turned as he was yanked back and trained his gun in the same direction, looking for… a ghost or something. He wasn’t much on parapsychology… he had dabbled in it a little back in college but he found it impetuous and ridiculous. He suddenly found himself recalling the seminar’s speaker saying that visitations of the paranormal kind can leave a foul stench. Usually this smell is associated with demons or in general evil spirits. Joseph scoffed inwardly. He never heard of such foolishness in his life but he was open to the possibility of being proven wrong. This is why his mind reflexively thought ‘ghost’ when he spun to join Sebastian in covering their position.

“What is it? What did you see?” Joseph asked as he trained the gun from side to side and saw nothing. 

“I thought I saw… maybe I was just imagining things.” Sebastian said as his fingers came away from Joseph’s arm. Joseph looked over at his superior. He had never wanted Sebastian to be more correct then now. The look on his face however told that he had in fact seen something and that whatever it was had vanished. But nothing earthly… of this world… ordinary… could make a person look like that unless they had seen a ghost.

“Seb… I didn’t see it. But I could smell it.” 

“I don’t smell that… whatever that stink was anymore either.” Sebastian nodded as if that was definitive proof there was something there. They both froze for a moment. They both felt a soft rumbling under their feet and could hear a low grinding sound all around them. It almost sounded as if some unseen force was bending the structures metal support beams slowly. The walls shook and the debris on the ground started to skitter to the left. The hall’s floor seemed to tip slowly and both men could feel their balance faltering. They clutched at one another for poise as Sebastian tried to reach for the right side wall where a bar was anchored to about hip height but he missed it and he could feel his feet sliding, losing their grip.

Like instinct, Joseph turned and grabbed Sebastian. He wasn’t sure what he was doing, all he knew was they could not stand there at that moment or something bad would happen. He ran toward the nurses’ station dragging Sebastian with him to the door covered in blood and hair where it stood seemingly unaffected by the rattling of the building. He was glad Sebastian came along with minimal prompting or they may never have gotten out of there. 

Their feet hitting the debris strewn floor was barely heard over the cacophonous sounds in the hall, echoing loudly. Window panes are shattering, books falling from shelves, trays tipping over, tiles falling off the walls. A subtle but growing louder growl, like a gigantic monster, was braying under the sounds of an earthquake, as if it was the sounds of the beast causing the calamity.

“Sebastian! Run!” Joseph called out; he didn’t look back but could hear Sebastian behind him, grunting and panting with exertion to get the fuck out of there as fast as possible. Joseph could feel the short hairs on the back of his neck standing up. He felt like something was chasing them. It was not his imagination, fight or flight kicked in, the will of preservation took precedence and he knew… he is positive there is something more in that hallway, perhaps what Sebastian saw, chasing them down. 

They passed the threshold of the wing and collided with the desk and looked back. All was silent. There was no shaking or grinding. No smells. No feeling of being chased. They panted and moaned for a moment, the urge to puke very prominent as they attempted to catch their breaths. Sebastian caught his first. He stood up and looked at Joseph. The younger looked rattled. 

“Are you okay?” He asked. He seized Joseph’s upper arms and stared into his face. He was only concerned because he hardly ever seen that fear in Joseph before, he was usually a rock. Or so it seemed to him anyway. But as his palms closed on Joseph’s biceps he could feel the man tremble. Sebastian even noticed his own hands shaking too, which was also unusual. 

“Yeah… I just… What was that, Seb? That certainly wasn’t an earthquake was it?” Joseph rubbed at his chest as he eyed the hallway. Sebastian glanced at it momentarily as well before he turned his partner around and hurried him toward the exit with a perfunctory ‘the fuck if I know’. 

They left the building and the premises completely and leaned on the car for breath. From the outside the building looked like it did when they first arrived. Spooky like something out of a Stephen King novel. Sebastian looked back at the darkened windows as he rubbed his lips. He could not see into the building from here and he was almost afraid too. He half expected something to press its hideous face against the dark glass and leer at him. He averted his eyes and instead looked at Joseph who was polishing his glasses like he always did as a force of habit when he was agitated.

“Okay so… we at least got some evidence to have analyzed. The next time we come here, we should bring back up. I am not sure what that was but I am not going back in that building again without a fucking army.” Sebastian said as he reached in his pocket, hands still trembling, and pulled out his bottle. He swished it about. Empty. He could tell, as Joseph replaced his glasses, that he wanted to berate him for even pulling the flask out, but he kept his mouth shut thankfully.

“So do you want to talk to this Mrs. Cobalt?” Joseph asked with a bit of a snap in his voice as he followed Sebastian’s hand putting the flask back in his pocket. Sebastian chose not to see the reaction and act like he had done nothing more than wipe his nose and put the hanky back. 

“Yeah. Talk to the others too. We will discuss how to handle Mrs. Cobalt when we get to her house.” Sebastian said as he walked around to get into the car. Joseph followed. After what just happened, he was thinking about giving Sebastian a hard time because he wanted a drink? Joseph wanted a drink after that and he didn’t even drink… not even occasionally. Instead, as Joseph checked the address and started the car, giving Larchwood Hospital a long last aggrieved glare, Sebastian lit a cigarette and took a deep pull as they drove toward the main road. Joseph noticed Sebastian’s hands were still shaking. 

*//*//*

“Would you boys like some coffee or tea?” The lady asked Sebastian and Joseph as they entered the home of the nurse who had given statement about what happened at the hospital. They followed her into the massive brick colonial that stood on the edge of Esplanade Avenue and Moss Street. Again here, the house had a vague air of creepiness that both men could feel, it was so palpable. 

The room was cluttered with old furnishings and dark from small windows and high ceilings with dark wood panels for walls. Old dusty books, knick knacks and picture frames lined every shelf and surface, especially on the mantel piece in the center of the room she led them too. 

“Tea would be nice, thank you.” Sebastian said. He liked this lady already and he could not say why. Something about her felt like his own mother. A peaceful knowing sort of lady… no matter her environment, she emanated safety. Myra and Lilly would have liked her.

“Have a seat boys. I just had a pot on to brew and it should be done in a jiff.” She was a short lady, a little plump and still had some vestiges of how beautiful she was before age took its toll. Both Sebastian and Joseph sat down, looking around the room and saw nothing interesting that would help them with the case. 

“How’d you like to live in a place like this?” Sebastian asked in a whisper as he leaned in to Joseph. Joseph smiled a little but straightened a little as Mrs. Cobalt came around the corner with a tray laden with hot water, tea bags, cups and some cookies. She sat it on the table before them.

“Help yourselves.” She said with grace and sat in the arm chair across from them, eyeing them. Joseph noticed how her eyes seemed to linger on him the most. “So you are detectives? I suppose this has to do with … the incident at Larchwood.” 

“This is a lovely house, ma’am.” Joseph said and she laughed at him, her wrinkled face shined with a mischievous glee.

“Oh you don’t need to bother trying to be polite. This hell hole scares everyone that walks in.” She acted like she was commenting on the flavor of tea that suited her own taste best. 

“I beg your-‘ Joseph started but he stopped because she leaned forward and shook her finger at him.

“I’ve lived twice as long as you. I can tell you are both uncomfortable. The set of your shoulders and the perch you have taken on the sofa is on the very edge. You are not comfortable and I merely am stating that you are not the first to feel that way and I am not offended. I have lived here all my life. So I am used to the house by now. After sixty eight years… you’d be too.” She sat back and motioned them to resume making their tea. She watched, again with some sort of gleam in her eye as she looked at Joseph and the way he took the tea from Sebastian seemed to confirm something for her.

“You would make a great detective. Looking for work? We could use you.” Sebastian said; liking the woman even more. She chuckled again and waved her hand at him.

“At my time of life no thank you. I have seen one battlefield… I don’t want to see another. Besides, if I took a shine to join you detective boys I would; one, erase crime and leave you lads with nothing to do and; two… with me around you wouldn’t have such a rapt audience young man.” She winked at Sebastian and then her eyes flicked back to Joseph. Sebastian noticed nothing and Joseph was too confused to mention it. 

“Mrs. Cobalt-‘ Sebastian started.

“Oh please, call me Bertha.”

“Bertha. We have read your report. Now… I am sure you understand why we need additional questioning as some of it is quite…uh…’

“Batshit crazy?” She supplied helpfully. Sebastian chuckled but Joseph stirred.

“It sounds a bit crazy. But we went to Larchwood – Joseph and I.” Sebastian noticed the merry look in her eyes had clouded over and her shoulders became tense.  
“You two went into the hospital?” She asked and with as much casualty as she could without displaying the overt fear in her voice.

“Yes. We had to look around. The assailant is still missing and from your statement you know who it was.” Sebastian said, eyeing her reaction. She shook a little. It was more a spasm of horror as a memory of something very unpleasant passed your mind’s eye.

“Now… if you have been in that building then you know how dark it is in there. I could have been… mistaken. But I am sure I know enough of Edmund to know it was him. Only… well since you read the report you know he went missing a while back and was presumed dead.” She looked awkwardly between the two men.

“Am I picking up in your tone that you have seen things in that hospital? I mean… things you can’t explain?” Sebastian asked as he leaned forward. She looked between the two young men with a bit of a nervous twitch and gave a weak sort of smile that was obviously forced through her trembling.

“Young man… if you can casually ask me if I have seen things in that hospital that I cannot explain then I can only assume that you too have seen something that would put the question in your mind.” She said, folding her shaking hands into her thighs. 

“As it happens… we did see some strange thing happen. It could have been a trick of the light, the building is rather deceptive. But other than thinking we seen something out of the corner of our eyes move, no… we saw nothing.” Sebastian noted her pale color recede and her trembling ease. It told him she was hiding something. Sebastian is a good judge of character usually and he could see that this woman is a good person. She perhaps was threatened about divulging information… or perhaps she seen something more than just an ‘apparition’ killing everyone. 

“What was your relationship with Dr. Lancey?” Joseph asked as he started writing things down into a notebook. Joseph also picked up on the tension she displayed. However his idea about her hiding something was not because she was a nice person… He got the distinct feeling she was hiding something because she was in some way involved. Or felt guilty about something. And the something was about to be answered. 

“Well… I uh… I had a short fling with him a while back. I say fling. But it was only ships passing in the night for him. As for me… I was madly in love with him. Until about a year before he vanished. He started to become a recluse. I never saw him and suddenly the only man in my life was my dead husband. Edmunds wife died about two months ago.” She said a little ashamed.

“Was there anyone in the hospital that may have known about your affair with Dr. Lancey and wanted revenge… or… was perhaps jealous of the exchange?” Sebastian asked. She looked as though she was concentrating and then she shook her head.

“No. No one else liked Edmund at all to care enough about what he was doing and the one person who knew about the affair died in a car accident shortly after. They called him names behind his back… Hitler… Nazi… all derogatory names against his authority in the hospital. He was more popular than the owner.” She said and leaned against the arm of the chair.

“Was he… forceful?” Joseph asked.

“He certainly knew how to push people. Although as I said… he had changed. He had started… going into the basement of the hospital. I have worked there for a long time and never did more than stand at the doorway to the basement. But he was spending day after day there. Coming in on his days off and going down there… locking himself in. Once in a while he would have other men down there with him, but he never spoke to me about what he was doing.” 

“Did you ask him?” Sebastian asked. She shook her head.

“I wasn’t crazy enough to pry into his business, I was the head nurse, not his wife. Some well-known families were tied in. That’s all I know. People in power, and that is all I need… to get mixed up in some cloak and dagger, secret illuminati type stuff, you’ll find my old fat ass stuffed in a plastic bag being tossed over Orchard Bridge.”

“You mentioned men… families going into the basement. Can you recall who exactly the families were?” Sebastian asked. Although she looked him straight in the face he could swear he saw a shift in her eyes, a purposeful unfocused stare so she wouldn’t have to look in his eyes and lie. Sebastian could feel Joseph nearly jumping off the seat in the heat of seeing her liar being turned on like a switch. He hoped Joseph would contain himself.

“No. I don’t remember. I never saw their faces.” She said and left it at that.

“Are you positive? If you need a moment to collect your thoughts-‘Joseph pressed. She looked at him and smiled. This time she did look right at Joseph and her eyes focused, like an eagle on its prey. 

“I am old but not senile young man.” 

“Ma’am I didn’t mean to imply-“Joseph cleared his throat and she waved a hand at him dismissively.

“I know you boys have a job to do and it is only reasonable for you to press me like this. But as I said, they would always go to the basement. All at odd hours. Never the same time frames and never for the same amount of time. So the chances are of you catching them coming or leaving were very slim. I wasn’t there to eaves drop on their doings… I was there to work and I had people to take care of.” She said. Joseph seemed to recover a bit. 

“So you have no idea what’s in the basement?” Joseph asked. She shook her head and again the detectives got the impression that she answered too quickly and here is where she was hiding something. 

“How can you work in the hospital for several decades and not know what’s down there?” Sebastian asked. She shrugged.

“With a man like Edmund telling you to keep your nose out of where it don’t belong, you would do well to curb your curiosity and do as told.” She snapped a little as a trickle of blood came out of her right nostril and over her lips. She jumped and her hand went to her nose.

“Oooh shit. This is the second time today. I got a nosebleed while having my morning pee as well. Strange thing. I never had nosebleeds before until about two weeks ago. I was afraid I may have had cancer or something so I got a screening and they found nothing. The air must be dry.” She said as Joseph stood to hand her a tissue. She took it and dabbed at her nose.

“Excuse me… may I use your bathroom?” Joseph asked. She looked up at him and pointed.

“Oh yes dear… just step beyond that archway and look to the right. You will see where the bathroom is. The door is wide open.” Joseph stepped passed Sebastian and headed in the direction of the bathroom. Sebastian watched him as he took the corner. Mrs. Cobalt did too. She eyed Joseph with a bit of shine in her gaze.

“That one… I can tell he is in love. Don’t you see that he is very distracted?” She asked as she leaned forward to whisper to Sebastian.

“Joseph? No… he doesn’t seem distracted to me. He always looks like that.”

“Perhaps you are not looking at him in the right light.” She nodded with a smile. Sebastian looked at her quizzically.

“The right light?”

“Women aren’t as good at it as men are. We women tend to wear our hearts on our sleeves. Men tend to wear a mask to hide their feelings. The only time to catch their true feelings is in the dark. In the dark they think no one can see so they take the mask off. Look at him in the dark. Especially if he is not expecting you to look at him.” She leaned forward and patted Sebastian’s hand.

“Why would I look at him?” Sebastian was genuinely confused.

“Why indeed…” She smiled wider as Joseph came around the corner and nodded to Sebastian. It took Sebastian a second to collect himself as he stood and left his tea only half consumed on the tray. He flicked his eyes to Joseph’s face. He didn’t notice anything different. The man’s face is set like it always is… resolute and determined. Perhaps it’s not dark enough… 

“I think we have asked enough questions for now. Here is my card – ‘Sebastian handed her his card. “If you should think of something of relevance like the people who visited the basement with Dr. Lancey please give us a call. If it’s not me, then you can talk to Detective Oda here. And please make sure you make yourself available should we need to visit again. Thank you for the tea.” 

She stood to her feet to help see them to the door assuring them that she would call if she thought of anything important. As the door closed behind them, Joseph pulled a latex gloved hand out of his pocket that was holding a plastic baggy and a blood stained tissue that he picked up from the waste basket in the bathroom. Sebastian nodded, still trying to see whatever it was that Mrs. Cobalt seen in Joseph but try as he might… all he seen was his partner as he always looked.

“What did she say to you when I went to the bathroom?” Joseph asked. Sebastian was still looking at him and earnestly shrugged his shoulders with a lift of his brow.

“Something about women wearing their hearts on their sleeves and to look at people in the dark because their masks aren’t on. I think she was hitting on me.” Sebastian chuckled a bit and noticed that Joseph’s lips pulled into a small smile, his dark almond shaped eyes seemed bright in the overcast sky. It felt like… beacons in the dark showing Sebastian the way to… something. Sebastian felt a little confused and looked away from him.

“Really? Cryptic.” Joseph muttered as he turned away catching a whiff of slight drink and cologne mingled with Sebastian’s scent. His specific scent… again, it beckoned him. And for the umpteenth time he had to suppress it. 

“What? That she may have been hitting on me? Or the women wearing their hearts on their sleeves? Neither one seems cryptic.” Sebastian must have thought he was being funny as he walked toward the car with his hands in his pockets and Joseph walking behind him. 

“I mean she was a bit cryptic. Why didn’t you tell her… about what we saw?” Joseph asked. 

“You saw her reaction when I told her we went into the hospital. She was terrified. Like she thought we may have brought something back to her house with us.” Sebastian said as he reached the door and for some reason unconsciously opened the driver side door for Joseph… the way he used to do with Myra. Sebastian paused for a moment as he looked down at his action like he couldn’t believe he had done it, but it was so natural and automatic he hadn’t even registered it until the door was open and Joseph gave him a quizzical smile. 

“Did… did you want to drive?” Joseph asked, trying to help Sebastian out of the hole he fell into. Sebastian looked down at his hand at the door handle and backed away from the door trying to play it cool.

“Nah… you can drive. Didn’t want you to have to touch the door with your gloves until you had time to take them off. You know… cross contamination?” Sebastian said as he turned to walk to the other side of the car. Joseph followed him with his eyes until Sebastian was on the other side of the car slipping into it.  
Joseph slipped the bloody tissue into the evidence bag and sealed it. Got into the car after removing his gloves and looked at Sebastian who seemed curiously and intensely interested in his identification wallet. 

“When you said ‘bring something back to her house’ are you speaking of a virus? Or a ghost?” He asked thinking of the implications of the case. Sebastian nodded a little.  
“We both saw it, Joseph. The thing she described.” Sebastian said. Joseph shook his head.

“No… I only saw your reaction to seeing something. I didn’t actually see anything. Just a lot of feelings besides the earthquake we got while we were in there.” Joseph said in a calmly rational way. It was clear to Sebastian that Joseph had rationalized it all in his head to make it easier to digest. But even Joseph had to have felt that presence chasing them down the hall. It wasn’t a figment of his imagination. Or an Earthquake. 

“I saw it – Joseph… we ran to beat hell because of it.”

“I could tell you seen something. Your eyes indicated as much when they focused. Eyes do that if they actually see an object.” Joseph said. He could see that Sebastian looked a little troubled but he hoped his honesty hadn’t hurt him. Or made him think he was crazy. Joseph, though he didn’t see the thing, whatever it was, felt it… he certainly smelled it. 

“Sebastian… I could cover your back and say without a doubt I’d seen it, but it would be a lie and I don’t lie very good. And without more evidence, presenting this one bit of information from one incursion is not going to sway the captain to give us more help.” Joseph said seriously. Sebastian scoffed and turned his head away and mumbled.

“Unless the help comes in the form of men in white coats. Everyone will be laughing at me.” Sebastian said. Joseph laughed a little as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

“Us. They’ll be laughing at us. I’m your partner.” He said softly. Sebastian looked at him for a moment and Joseph got the suspicion that Sebastian wanted to say something about his comment. Instead, Sebastian shrugged and looked away.

“Let’s go back to the precinct and look over more of those files. I want to talk to a few more people. See if any of them have had similar situations and visions. Perhaps nosebleeds. I feel that may be relevant. If the captain needs more evidence than that… then we need to do more digging.” Sebastian added.


	5. Morning frost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Both Joseph and Sebastian wake up to chilly mornings in different parts of Krimson City. And for as far apart as they are, both are touched by the cold.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am sorry about how long this chapter is, I just couldn't cut it in half because it just seemed all the information should be on one chapter.
> 
> Also, for any interested. I updated Chapter 4. I reread it and found I really hated the way I closed it so I mostly added to the later half of the chapter when Joseph and Sebastian were in Mrs. Cobalt's house. Go have a look to see what was added and thanks for the support! the more love I get, the more I write and I really don't want to stop now!

Joseph slid out of bed the next morning and looked out his bedroom window. His hair tousled and his glasses now in place he looked at the thin layer of frost twinkling and shining all over every surface. He sighed and his breath steamed up the window and he heard something shift behind him. He didn’t look because he knew what it was.

“When are you coming home this time?” She asked from the bed. Her voice was subtle, groggy with sleep but Joseph knew her enough to know that she was going to give him a hard time. He smirked a little though. Usually a long night under the sheets stopped her from badgering him this early in the morning. She must be shifting again… never the same face presented more than a few months at a time. 

“When I get out of work.” Joseph answered with as much casualty as he could muster. He hated when she started nagging him about his hours. It wasn’t like he was going out and ‘drinking with the boys’ or anything. He was doing his job… or… that is what he said but mostly he was trying to protect Sebastian every time he seemed to be teetering over the edge.

Joseph was the hook that kept him from falling completely over and even though his wife knows his partner is an alcoholic and why he is like that, she still thinks it is in no way Joseph’s responsibility to deal with it. She doesn’t know – or at least he doesn’t think she suspects, about his feelings for his partner. She knows his… secrets and perhaps she is suspicious, but where Sebastian is – or was- married and had a daughter, she may be overlooking the facts she knows about her husband.

“You know what I mean. I know they have you working on cases and all that and sometimes they require a lot of groundwork. But then you have that drunken bastard you have to deal with. Why don’t you request to get another partner? He is only going to slow you down.” She said as she sat up slightly in the bed. Joseph closed his eyes and wanted to rage at her but he held it back. He turned to look at her. She was tanned, light brownish red hair and dark brown – almost black- eyes. By all accounts this woman is gorgeous and he was lucky to have been able to marry her. 

“Hon… Sebastian is my friend. Not just my partner. I work well with him. And he needs someone to be there for him. You know what happened to him. I can’t leave him like that.” He saw her thin manicured eyebrow rise in appraisal. 

“That is what therapists are for. Or more alcohol.” She said seriously. His brows knitted tight in a scowl.

“That’s not fair! I know him, babe… and he isn’t going to just talk to some stranger about what’s going on, most of Krimson City already knows… he doesn’t need more alcohol or a therapist, he needs a friend.” Joseph leaned on the windowsill with a huff of frustration. He noticed her looking at him with a suspicious smile.

“You care about him don’t you? I mean more than just ‘friends’ would care for friends.” Joseph tried like hell to keep his face from turning red but he could feel it prickling. “I am kidding!” She added with a laugh. Joseph cleared his throat with a nervous laugh. She had taken the blush as he’d hoped. 

“You blush too easily.” She amended and lay back in the bed stretching out sensually. She patted the bed and purred at him.

“Come take me again little boy. Mama’s horny.” Last night when she pulled this tactic on him, he felt his penis tingle… he could feel his passion fly through the roof but now he felt absolutely nothing. And last night, as he took her, he pretty much kept his eyes shut and did not look her in the face. He pretended… he is lucky his imagination is good or he may not have had the stomach to start walking over to the bed again as he put a knee up on the mattress to mount her. He heard her whimper voraciously as her legs started to spread. 

The bedroom door busted open and Joseph and his wife turned to see a small figure in the doorway, a pink Tinkerbell blanket draped over it that dragged the floor.

“RAAAAGH!!” the voice, high and attempted to be scary bellowed out from under it as two pale skinny arms popped out from under it. Joseph could see under the folds of the blanket the doll he bought his daughter sitting on the floor at her feet. She had taken it with her in her attempt to scare her parents. He smiled… for two reasons. His daughters timing could not have been perfect. Instead of sex he didn’t really feel the mood for, he was able to run up to his daughter and scoop her into his arms and leave his wife laying on the bed looking more than a little disappointed. 

As Joseph scooped his daughter into his arms he heard her screech and giggle as Joseph proceeded to gnaw at her through the blanket making growling monster noises at her in turn. His daughter pulled back the blanket off her head and looked down at her father’s face and she glowed with love. The only other to glow with as much love was him. He loved her so much. 

“DADDY!” She screamed in delight.

“Pumpkin!” He said and kissed her all over her face.

“Really you two are making a scene.” His wife said, a little cranky as she adjusted the blankets and her nighty to cover up. “Renee I told you not to drag that doll around. It’s very expensive and should be kept on the shelf as a display only.” 

“Aw, hon… if it gets ruined I can just buy her another one.” Joseph said over his daughter’s shoulder as he eyed his wife. His daughter was not paying attention as she peered down at the pretty doll dangling from her little hands. 

“You shouldn’t have even bought her that one. She is too young for a thing like that.” She said as she slid to the side of the bed and stood up gracefully. She strode over to the pair embracing and looked down at the doll. For a moment Joseph tensed because he thought his wife was going to take the doll from Renee. Instead she kissed her daughters head and stopped long enough at the door to put her dressing robe on and tie it about her waist.

“I have a meeting up north tonight. I won’t be home until tomorrow afternoon. So you will have to pick Renee up from school and remember she does get out at 2:15. All the numbers to get a hold of the hospital, my mother and me are next to the phone, supper is at 6:30 and she is to be in bed by 8:30.”She said it like a laundry list that he had to remember. Or more like she didn’t trust him to be able to take care of this thing on his own.

“I have done this before… I am not really an amateur father anymore.” He said. 

“Oh I am not sure you can handle it while you are so taken up with playing cops and robbers all day with that drunk friend of yours.” She said in a joking manner as she slipped on her slippers. 

“Wha-“ Joseph started to protest, seriously offended but she cut him off.

“Oh and please. Do not forget! You need to pick up Renee’s costume for her Thanksgiving play next Wednesday. I need to alter it so it fits her. She so has your gene. She is tiny which makes finding things that fit her very difficult.” She said as she put a couple of rings on her fingers and sized up her reflection in the vanity mirror. 

“Where do I find her costume?” Joseph tried not to sound too irritated until she tutted in exasperation, not even bothering to look at him, she continued to adjust her robes and things to make her look more flattering.

“We’ve already discussed this Joe… you have to get it from the drama coordinator on the auditorium level of her school. I won’t tell you again.” It was as if she didn’t realize how she was talking to him, it seems to come to her automatically and it was like she was slapping him in the face, reminding him of why he hated her so much.

“Stop talking to me like that!” Joseph said. He didn’t shout it, he stated it firmly with his daughter nestling her head into his neck. His wife sighed.

“You take things so personal, Joe. Besides… you don’t want to fight me in front of Renee.” She said with a smile and wink as if she thought it was cute. She clapped her hands, Joseph thought, very much like a dog owner would do to a dog in training and called to her daughter.

“Renee, you have an hour and a half to get ready for school. Shower, dress and eat and be in the car by 8. Don’t make me repeat myself sweetie!” She said and turned around to walk out of the room. Joseph was on the verge of calling his wife back but felt Renee’s little fingers touch his chin to pull his gaze toward her.

“Daddy… your nose is broken.” She stated as she looked down at his face.

“Daddy’s nose isn’t broken… “Joseph smiled up at her. But she pointed at her own nostril, indicating to him that she sees something on his face in the same spot. He lifted a couple fingers to touch the rim of his nostrils and pulled back two bloody fingers and he gasped. He heard a secondary gasp and thumping. 

He was distracted for a second and while he was tipping his head to the side to keep the blood from running on to anything he felt his daughter being pulled from his arms roughly. He covered his nose and looked at his wife with their daughter clutched in her arms.

“Please don’t bleed all over the place and try not to get it on the rug.” She put Renee on her feet and patted her butt to make her move. “Go do as I asked please.” She watched for a second as Renee stooped to pick up the blanket and scampered out of the room. She turned back toward her husband.

“You should get that checked. I never see you with a nose bleed.” She said as she eyed him. It seemed like she was trying to be more sympathetic because of the way she felt she was treating him, but it was only a passing gesture. It would be all he would get out of her until the next time. She bustled out of the room and down the hall and he could hear her talking to Renee. 

He stood there for a moment, agitated and wanted more than anything to just walk up to his wife and slap her for being such a fucking bitch. He pictured himself strangling her… could feel his hands itching to slap the ever loving shit out of her for treating him like an abused dog. All he felt like to her was a dick she could fuck whenever she asked for it and it pissed him off. He could feel rage boiling inside him, bubbling up, taking his daughter from him and not worrying about his situation first but worrying about appearances and stains before his well being. That nasty bitch… he wanted more than anything now, as his muscles clenched and his teeth gritted together to just take his gun and shoot her. Put him and his daughter out of their misery by getting rid of the cause of it.

Joseph blinked… he suddenly felt mortified. He is not in any way a violent man. He suddenly felt light headed and he stumbled a little to the bed and sat down on the edge of it, feeling his head spin a little. He took deep steadying breaths and looked down at his fingers that he had been holding his nose with. They were bloody but it wasn’t serious. He hadn’t even got any on his clothes. 

He felt sick about the image of hurting or killing his wife. The aggression and images were so… foreign to him that they made him feel nauseated. He covered his mouth a little and shook as he tried to push the images away and the serious consideration to taking his gun and killing her that had reared up so unexpectedly a second ago.  
He heard his daughter giggle from downstairs and his wife call up ‘Hun do you want some coffee and toast? Also you are running out of nori, you may want to get more.” He swallowed as he tried to answer in a voice that didn’t crack in fear. He cleared his throat and steadied his breath as best he could and called out to her from the bedroom.

“Yes thank you. I will be down in a moment.” He heard her bustling about in the kitchen as the sound of a news broadcast was added to the ambiance of the house. He stood to his feet as he stared down at his fingertips. He suddenly remembered Mrs. Cobalt’s nosebleed. He took in a sharp breath and ran into the master bathroom and turned on the sink light to look at his reflection. He looked normal except for the dark red ring around his left nostril. Smooth pale skin with dark almond eyes. It may be coincidence but he wasn’t sure and better to not take chances. He unraveled some toilet paper and wiped at his nose. 

He would talk to Sebastian about it. He wondered now if the nosebleed was from being in the hospital and whether or not Sebastian has had a nosebleed as well. He vaguely remembered him saying something about it perhaps being significant and if it is, Joseph may have been affected by whatever it was that happened with the doctor. He needed to get to the office and talk to Sebastian.

*//*//*

On the other side of town Sebastian opened his eyes blearily in the glare of the morning sunlight. It was filtered through curtains that had been hanging from the window when he rented this apartment. They were an ugly green lacy color that he found disgusting like much of everything else in the apartment that was left behind by its previous owner but he couldn’t be bothered with aesthetically sprucing the place up at all. He was hardly ever here and just couldn’t think of ways to make the place look nice when he had no reason to do so. It was just a hovel for him to lay his head in and drink away his problems. 

The scrubbed nightstand next to his twin sized bed in the corner of the room had a thin layer of dust on it. Some weird tracks in the dust made by his knuckles as he lay his keys and badge down in it. The morning sun glinted off the whisky bottle he had finished off last night and the glare felt like needles in his eyes. He grimaced and closed his eyes. They were crusty from sleep and his head was heavy with a hangover. 

He yawned and every movement seemed painful. Yet he forced himself to sit up on the side of the bed and hung his head and looked down at the floor between his feet. The rug was a drab cream color. Nothing marvelous but at least he didn’t have to put his feet on cold tiled floor. He looked up his legs and to his thighs where the rim of his boxers poked out from under the old sheet he used to cover himself with. Then he noticed the little red dots on the white of the fabric and stared at it curiously. He picked it up and examined it. It was blood spatters. He looked around and notices a nice sized splotch of blood on his pillow and he sneered.

“Fuck… “ He muttered. He wiped at his nose with the back of his hand and seen fresh and old blood came away and glisten on his skin. “What the hell…” He got up with intent but flopped down on the bed as the room began to spin. Sebastian didn’t connect the room spinning to his nosebleed he figured silently that the booze was still in his system and he had to work out the last dregs before he went into work so Joseph wouldn’t hassle him some more. 

He attempted to get off the bed, a little easier this time and managed it. He limped a little with his hand on the wall to guide himself down a narrow hall to the little dingy bathroom and flicked on the light. He looked like shit as he observed himself in the mirror. His face was blue with stubble and his eyes were red from wallowing and drinking. He looked a little pale too and the dried and crusted blood that ran lines over his cheek and into his stubble toward his ear made him look like he had been mugged and unconscious. 

Sebastian thought to himself that he needed to stop drinking. But the reason he drinks, every time he considers stopping, would always flash in front of his mind’s eye, invariably making him forget his consideration just to stop those flashes from happening and even drinking didn’t seem to help that every time.

Sebastian reached behind the shower curtain and turned on the shower water. He hadn’t been doing much of anything worthy of ‘taking care of himself’ other than showering and shaving occasionally and eating only when he felt like he would pass out if he didn’t… hearing some voice in his head sound like Myra berating him for falling to pieces like this… but this morning as he waited for the water to heat up he padded through the small living room and into the kitchenette to start a pot of coffee. He looked around and found a half a bag of moldy bread and he grimaced. He tossed it in the garbage and noticed that he has not taken the garbage out in weeks yet… the bucket was maybe a quarter full. And that is if you don’t push everything down. He looked at the sink and there were only glasses in there and one spoon with what looked like old peanut butter on it.

For some reason he hated himself and could hear… not Myra this time… but Joseph fussing over the state of the apartment and how he is not taking care of himself right. He remembered how well lived in Joseph’s house was compared to his own meager flat but could not really compare his life now to his partners. Their lives were very different. Sebastian looked in the fridge and hated himself for seeing a half carton of eggs, a clearly curdled half gallon of milk that had never been opened and old sandwich meat. The fridge stunk too. He didn’t bother looking in the freezer. Sebastian didn’t ever recollect opening it at all. There could be frozen body parts in there from the previous owner for all he knew. He grabbed at the milk and meat and tossed it into the rubbish and took the bag outside to the dumpster.

He cursed loudly as he light a cigarette and inhaled the first drag of the morning in the frigid air. He tossed the bag in the dumpster and ran back to his doorway. If he knew it was this fucking cold out he would have at least put his coat on. He finished his cigarette as he heard the coffee maker bubbling as the last of the water went through the filter and he came inside and closed the door. 

For some reason, realizing what a mess he’d been lately had really disgusted him this morning. He walked into the bathroom, not looking at the family photo on the wall and into the bathroom for a shower. 

He climbed in after stripping and taking a piss and let the warm water run over his face. It felt good. He tried to imagine the water washing his tired sadness away. Letting it swirl down the drain in promise of a new start. He would go to work today and keep busy with Joseph. He found he thought less of everything that hurt him when he was working. He made no connection to Joseph helping him forget, he just chalked it up to work added up to forgetting and forgetting equaled he could feel normal. 

He grabbed the soap on the edge of the tub and started scrubbing himself with gusto as a subtle scent of soap mixed with coffee from the kitchen filled his senses and he suddenly felt hungry. He smiled, thinking of the day ahead rather than stopping at the liquor store… stopping at the grocery store and getting some proper food in house and… perhaps trying to find some of that coffee Joseph had. It tasted as good as it smelled which is more than he can say for his own coffee. But this morning it will have to do.  
He willed himself to try to be ‘normal’ for Myra and Lilly. Some part of his brain also said Joseph but then… that wasn’t really abnormal or weird. Joseph, while his partner is also his friend and knows that Joseph would also appreciate his friend at least attempting to get back to some semblance of normalcy again. So perhaps Joseph wouldn’t need to be so… pushy and constantly looking out for him. Give the man a break and let him go home to his wife and daughter without worrying about what’s going to happen to poor ol’Seb. 

*//*//*

The first thing Sebastian did when he walked through the door with a smile on his face was nod at the young receptionist who was being flirted at by Oscar Connolly. Sebastian could tell she wasn’t interested in Oscar but she humored him anyway. 

“Detective Castellanos. Good morning! You’re looking well.” She said with a smile and Oscar looked at him with a bit of a disappointed sigh. The receptionist on the other hand looked a little taken aback by how well Sebastian looked this morning and even by the merest stutter in Oscar’s drama did he notice the change as well. 

“There goes my chances of a date. For I cannot hold a candle to the incomparable Detective Sebastian Castellanos… I shalt smite myself and rid the world of my ugliness!” Oscar said with a play acting eccentricity as he covered his face with the back of his hand. Both Sebastian and the receptionist laughed as Sebastian continued to walk and Oscar followed. Sebastian waved a hand at the receptionist in gratitude for the compliment and kept walking.

“So… I heard about that freaky case you and Jojo are on. What a crock of shit that is, huh?” Oscar said with a grin and Sebastian cleared his throat with a laughed.

“Joseph hates being called ‘Jojo’… don’t let him hear you call him that.” Sebastian said as he stopped for a moment at the coffee maker, poured a cup and took a sip as he continued walking but pulled a face. Damn he was spoiled by Joseph’s coffee. All else is going to taste like will compared to it. 

“It’s a good thing he is in the office.’ Oscar said with a wily smile. “What do you think? You think all the missing person’s reports have anything to do with the shit that went down at Larchwood? I mean… the numbers of missing people are just piling up and we can’t find them. It’s not like we’re finding bodies… they just disappear-“Oscar stopped talking suddenly at the look on Sebastian’s face and then it dawned on him what he was saying. Oscar frowned with a pained expression.

“Oh shit… Sebastian… I am so sorry. I… fuck I just put my foot in my mouth. I am so-“Oscar was trying to apologize but Sebastian looked as though he suddenly thought of something. He lifted his hand to silence Oscar’s profuse apology and looked to the side, not as if he was seeing something with his eyes but more like seeing something displayed in his mind. 

“The missing people reports.” Sebastian said. “Did… any of them mention Larchwood?”

“The Veteran’s hospital up north? I am sure a couple did but it’s not usually my division, that’s the Missing Persons division.” Oscar winced a little and shook his head apologetically. Sebastian sighed.

“Oscar look… all the divisions in the precinct work together and where I work in close ties with all of them it would be very difficult for me to work the rest of my life here or in any other precinct and avoid the missing persons division just because I don’t want to think about Myra.” Sebastian liked Oscar, he is a good guy and a great cop but he tried too hard to be… perfect sometimes. Sebastian wasn’t sure if it was him trying to be perfect or Oscar, like everyone else, is trying to skirt around Sebastian’s pain as if it was contagious. 

“Yeah, okay…’ Oscar said and gave a halfhearted nod as he looked down at the gleaming wedding band on Sebastian’s finger. 

“So Larchwood. There is mention of it in those files?” Sebastian asked and watched Oscar ease up a little.

“Some, yeah. I haven’t read them all thoroughly, as I said it’s not my division but… I had to stand outside Larchwood when the call was made and when they were bringing out the bodies. Sebastian… the bodies were… they were awful looking. Like they had been dead for weeks. Bloated, rotting and maggot covered. But according to the surviving eye witnesses they had been dead for less than an hour.” 

“I am starting to wonder now… did it say anything about any of the bodies not belonging to patients or staff?” Sebastian considered. Oscar shrugged.

“I didn’t see any numbers and I know they should be done with all that information by now. Autopsy has been working double overtime trying to bag and tag all the bodies, help from all over the state came in to get the numbers and names up. You should check your inbox, maybe they have sent it already.” Oscar pointed in the general direction of the office. Sebastian turned and walked away briskly with a nod, leaving Oscar to say ‘so long’ to his retreating back.

*//*//*

Sebastian entered his office that he shared with Joseph and felt his heart skip a beat. Just for a fleeting second he thought he saw Myra standing at the desk Joseph now occupies. But when he blinked and his heart rate plummeted down to somewhat normal, he realized he was looking at Joseph. He was standing in the same place, in the same position that Myra would stand when she was his partner as she was viewing files first thing in the morning.

Joseph looked over at him and Sebastian had to swallow because he just realized how… attractive Joseph is. Slim, pale skin, dark eyes and hair. He always seemed to look so crisp and clean. Sebastian didn’t feel weird about thinking Joseph’s looks were appealing at all… it just sort of snuck up on him suddenly. Joseph smiled and held the files up that he had been holding.

“The results of Mrs. Cobalt’s blood. There is no indication of anything unusual. But they do note that it is likely, given her age, that she is taking medications… even Tylenol would through off results. In order for us to get a clean sample, she would need to stop taking her meds for at least a week or two. And let’s face it, if she is taking medication for anything important it would do her a lot of harm to stop just so we can test her. We need to see if we can find a younger healthier individual with little or no annual medication they need to take.” Joseph said quickly but stalled as he looked at Sebastian. A soft smile passed his lips. Sebastian, though looked deep in thought, looked surprisingly well this morning. 

“Seb… you… look good this morning.” He tried to keep the pleasure to a minimum but he was sure his eyes were bright with it not to mention the fact that he could feel the heat blushing his cheeks. Sebastian looked momentarily distracted by this.

“What?” He asked as he blinked rapidly, like it would clear his head of the fog and make Joseph’s statement make sense.

“You look well. You don’t look as if you’re-“

“Hung over?” Sebastian asked and Joseph was surprised to see a grin stretch across his face. Joseph nodded apologetically. “I drank last night but I was too tired from all the shit yesterday to really drink too much. I fell asleep before I could really get hammered.” 

“Oh…” Joseph looked a little disappointed. 

“But I managed to drag my sorry ass into the shower and have some coffee. You spoiled me the other morning. No coffee I have had since your coffee tastes anywhere near as good. Not only that, I found out I need to do some food shopping. I had nothing palatable in my apartment.” He said with a soft chuckle that made Joseph’s smile return. Sebastian liked it when he smiled. 

“Are… are you doing anything after work, Seb?” Joseph asked, the light blush deepened. Sebastian noticed but said nothing about it. Joseph got sheepish about a lot. 

“Just food shopping.” Sebastian said and deliberately not added whether or not he’d need a drink after they day hands him the next plate of what the fuckery. 

“Would you care to join me and my daughter for supper?” Joseph tried not to grin sheepishly. It was bad enough he likely looked flustered as hell. He feared by the look on Sebastian’s face that he’d say no. But Sebastian cocked an eyebrow.

“No Missus tonight?” 

“No she is going up north to Skowhegan to be in attendance for a board meeting tomorrow morning. My sister is coming over though. I would just like another guy there.” Joseph lied. But he managed to not look guilty as hell when he did. He knew his sister wasn’t coming over and hoped that if he said that his sister was coming over, Sebastian may think Joseph was trying to hook him up with her. And Sebastian took it as just that.

“I’m not really looking for-“ He started but Joseph cut him off.

“I am not trying to pawn you off on my sister. I just thought… you know… you’d like to do something other than be-be alone.” Joseph said earnestly. Sebastian had to think about this for a full few seconds. His eyes never left Joseph’s. Sebastian really wanted to turn his life around. He considered refusing the offer but now, he figured that if he was going to start making a difference, that he’d want to start with the person that was closest to him now. And that was Joseph.

“Sure. Should I bring anything?”

“Just yourself.” Joseph smiled wide and Sebastian couldn’t help but smile in return. “Supper is at 6 :30 but show up at 6. I think my daughter would really like you.” Sebastian’s eyes clouded over for a ghost of a second. Joseph seen it and worried that Sebastian had thought about his deceased daughter. 

“I’d love to meet her.” He said with a bit of a forced smile and while the slight uncomfortable air lingered between them for a second, Sebastian forced it away by bringing back the task at hand, the thing that made him come to the office in a rush.

“So I saw Connolly downstairs and he said that the autopsy reports for the bodies taken from Larchwood should have been handed in by now. Have you seen them?” Sebastian asked, looking at the invoice box to see that it was empty. Joseph shook his head.

“No. I am surprised. With as many bodies recovered from the building, I am surprised that they’d be done by now. But perhaps they are and just haven’t gotten the files up to us yet. Perhaps we can take a walk down to autopsy and get the files ourselves.” Joseph suggested and Sebastian nodded.

“We’ll do that. But Autopsy won’t be open for another 45 minutes. I on the other hand need a bacon egg and cheese from Dunkin Donuts. Come with?” Sebastian said lightly as he looked down at Joseph’s arm. There was neatly folded gauze pressed to the crook of his arm and held down with bright blue tape. 

“Blood draw?” Sebastian asked as he pointed at the crook of Joseph’s arm. Joseph looked at it and then something came to him.

“Oh yes… I had a nose bleed this morning!” He said and seemed shocked by it.

“Now that you mention it… so did I.” Sebastian said. He thought about going to have his blood tested too but he stalled because of his drinking. Luckily Joseph cut in with thoughts on the case.

“You said you thought the nosebleeds could be something to do with the case. But nothing showed up on Mrs. Cobalt’s blood tests that they could use because she is medicated already. I don’t take medications so I my blood would be fine to test. If they find toxin’s in my blood that would otherwise be masked by other medications then… it could be we were drugged and this is why we saw things in Larchwood.” Joseph said radiantly. 

“While we are waiting for that, I want to get a definitive number on the body count against the number of staff and patients that worked and resided at Larchwood. Then I can see, if there is a number discrepancy, whether or not all the missing people that have been cropping up lately have anything to do with Larchwood.” Sebastian waved a knowing finger like pointing at the destination ahead that was marked by a checkered flag. Joseph smiled that smile again.

“What about the bacon egg and cheese?” 

“I’ll get that now… you fly and I’ll buy.” Sebastian said as he turned toward the door to the office gesturing to Joseph to come with him.


	6. They

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They make their appearance. Conflicted and coinciding. They are an amalgam of profanity and lust... a victim, though not their first pays the price of their diseased minds. And while they move through the KCPD unseen, Joseph and Sebastian figure out a plan to go about with the preliminary and Sebastian, though gripped by a bad feeling he could not shake, out of no where, he was distracted by a teenager in his path.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long. Real life is a bitch!
> 
> I would like to say thank you to Foxlan for beta reading this chapter and hope she/he can continue doing it from here on in! <3
> 
> you have met the antagonist. The antagonist is OCish. However you are not mistaken... that is who you think it is at the end. 
> 
> again, I am not a detective, so I don't know all the steps they take in investigation. So I am winging it LOL! And as far as what is happening with the antagonist, every time I think of everyone in the tubs in the game all I can think of is Fringe with one of the lead characters being stuck in a metal (dumpster) like thing and hook up with electrodes and pumped with drugs. 
> 
> anyway, I hope you enjoy!

Dream. Nightmare. It seemed all the same. Walking trapped in the half light of waking where this domain resided. The bitter sweet and tangible taste of those before cling to the tongue that rolled about in the mouth to savor with the utmost lust. They couldn’t count on all extremities the number of bodies they have consumed in the pursuit of higher understanding. Once they had the first taste, there was nothing else that could satisfy them. The more they took in, the more they wanted. 

They had been told that their methods were barbaric. They had been told that their ideas are beyond radical and that they should be burned at the stake for their blasphemous acts. Hypocrites. Sycophants. Pious and pontificating leeches that spit on the work then ask that they continue with little regard for their salivating mouths hanging open in aroused wonder. They had not done anything but what the others wanted them to do. They came with an idea, gave them the resources and said ‘do it’. And they did. 

They walked down the hall of the KCPD building amongst the simple people who scurry like roaches in infinite and seemingly useless and single-minded ends. These insects move from one errand to another with strange faces, nameless souls, just numbers and waves of varying energy. No one looked at them and it was fine. Those blind fools wouldn’t see them anyway. They managed to slip around everyone unseen for a long time; there would be no reason for it not to work now as they headed down the hall toward Autopsy. 

A young woman came out of a set of double doors at the end of the hall in a hurried manner. She smiled and waved at them in half recognition but they still paid no attention to her feigned attempt at friendliness. They knew this face did not harbor much love from the outside. Not with its recent history and personality that grated everyone like sandpaper. They could taste the bitter sting of loss and the tinny burn of alcohol in their throat. However it did not affect them. It just made playing the part easier. 

A hand came up to the swinging doors and pushed it open. The hand raised into sight is rugged and slightly chapped from lack of proper moisture. Calluses and a scar or two adorned the skin along with the sparse hair that peppered it and up his arm under where it hid under the rim of his long light brown and travel worn trench coat. The most curious adornment is the gold unembellished band about his third finger. This should not be here.

“Sebastian! How’s it going?” The younger man that walked out of a back room, looking a little happier than he should have given his job of cutting up corpses stopped in front of him with a stack of files in his hand. He looked down at the name badge dangling from the man’s baggy scrubs.

“I’m fine… Jason. I just came down to see if you had the autopsy reports finished.” Sebastian said. He noticed that Jason’s face fell a little. His expression was confused.

“I’m Michael.” Michael corrected. Sebastian must have swilled again because Sebastian knew him. Sebastian had been the one to initiate changing his tag with his co-worker as a joke back when he was just partners with Myra. He thought it was a funny joke. Goddamned alcohol amnesia. Sebastian’s eyes flicked down to the badge and back up. He surveyed the younger man for a moment and forced a smile. He did not say anything and Michael shrugged inwardly and lifted the files, though part of him still felt a little uneasy by the toothy way Sebastian was grinning at him. That was a PR grin… not a casual gift given to a friend by way of greeting.

“Here they are.” He said and Sebastian took them. He flipped through them, Michael noticed, as a card magician would cut a deck of cards. The man was being really weird right now. Sebastian would usually just take them and turn and leave with a snappy or lazy ‘see ya’. As Sebastian looked over the files he seemed to look for something in particular before he looked up and realized the younger man was still talking to him.

“Sebastian. Did you hear me?” Michael asked. 

“I was looking at the files. So no. I didn’t hear you.” Sebastian said. The younger man stared at Sebastian for a second and it was plainly obvious he was insulted by the lack of attention. He repeated himself with a little less mirth. 

“I asked if you had seen Connolly. He’s going around acting like Shakespeare this morning. I swear I would love to have some of whatever it is he is rolling-‘

“Did you read these?” Sebastian asked, cutting Michael’s description of another officer’s antics that Sebastian clearly had no time for. Now Michael was more than a little irritated for being cut off by Sebastian. The older man had always been interested in stories, jokes and anecdotes given by the younger man.

“What? Hell no. You know I ain’t cutting the bodies yet. I just help out. Not only that, the people was all fucked up. For some reason I had a really hard time looking at them. I have seen many dead bodies but never ones like this. It was like… they were twisted from the inside.” Michael said. Sebastian’s expression went from mild annoyance to confusion. But Michael could swear there was an underlying expression masked by the misperception. He couldn’t figure out what it was but again, he got a vague sense of unease.

“Twisted? In what manner?” He tried to keep the excitement in check but… after all his work… well not all of it was his work admittedly. But he took that snobbish brat’s idea that Dr. Jimenez stole and expedited the situation. There was no sense in being careful when the pain and torture subjects were exposed to worked perfectly to increase the fear one could use to inflict all sorts of atrocities on an unwitting mind. On the black market or the government would pay very lucratively for this sort of warfare. Or… that was the initial plan. Somehow along the way… the fear and pain became addictive… pleasurable… delicious. And relinquishing it became a nightmare even in the grand scheme of having more money than god and buying the pleasure of pain… no. This was perfection compared to those time wasting fools.

The thieving doctor and the child prodigy he stole the idea from would be angry about what had been done to their ideas and work. Not only that, an outside agency is also interested in the work... thought not for profit. They don’t appear too happy about the ‘evil’ to use the word they used, that is being committed. But concern for their righteous dogmatism plagued not the depths of the divine pleasure experienced in then fold terror. Where they… are the boogeyman.

“You ever see that movie The Ring? Or… Ringu if you prefer the Japanese version… I always prefer the Japanese originals to any American remake… Somehow Hollywood always seem to leave an element out-‘

“Get to the point.” Sebastian barked a little and received a pang of ecstasy at the look on the other man’s face. Exquisite. Even the slightest tremor of alarm. 

“Well they looked as if they’d been frightened to death. Mouths agape… like they had been screaming when the life left them. Some sort of extremely traumatic death… and very quick for that expression to freeze on their faces. But it was also almost like a caricature. Even the most insanely frightened person would not be able to do that with their faces… the bones just don’t… move or bend or… stretch to allow their faces to look like that. This is why I alluded to a movie to give reference.” 

Michael was getting irritated at the lack of interest that Sebastian showed to his presence and the blatant disregard for the files as he let them fall to the floor. In fact he was a little freaked out to see the slight twist of Sebastian’s face, like he was pleased with something. Hands were clutching Michael’s face before he even seen Sebastian move. Something long… it looked like a tube made of sinew and muscle, pulsating and bloody wet was hanging from Sebastian’s mouth.

A spasm of fear overcame him as a stab of pain pierces the back of his throat. Confusion pinching his brow line as he followed the trailing appendage from Sebastian’s mouth that is hanging down like it is on hinges, and into his own mouth. His body stiffens as he tries to pull away, but the stabbing turns into excruciating agony as whatever invaded his mouth ran down his throat… up into his sinuses and out his nostrils. Michael was quite sure he felt something against his eyes… every bone, every fiber was being pulled apart faster than he could allow for the sound to give voice to the horror. But before he could scream the slithering thing coming out of Sebastian’s mouth had filled his throat and he could no longer breathe or move. 

Michael’s body twitches as Sebastian pulls him closer, tasting him inside and out. The only sound allowed was the slight gurgle that Michael made trying to groan in pain but it didn’t work. Both men fell back into the wall near the door Michael had come through and they writhed together, Sebastian moaning a little at the fear and blood and the pain adding an exquisite bouquet to the flavor. Sebastian pushed himself completely against the youth. His has a tight body only that of a young and ripe 23 year old could have felt good against his body. Hardness had come up between the young man’s legs, warmth as urine gushed out, mixed with blood. He is so warm and robust… lovely… 

Sebastian pushed into the failing young man before him as he delves deeper and deeper into his depths. Michael’s eyes have rolled back into his head and his body has stopped moving and only then did Sebastian let him go. He let the body slide down the wall but caught it hard with an iron grip to the lifeless body’s cock. He squeezed it and felt the hardness in his hand with relish. 

Everything this vermin was is now in him. He tapped into every bit of them. And his pain and fear suited his pallet but there was still something missing. There is flavor that they can only get from specific people. People who know familial love. The ones who have children, wives, husbands. Extended family doesn’t tend to count like the mother or father and siblings. Usually the fearful pang aside from dying, was for the victims children or spouse first. It gives extra spice and allows them to walk amongst the others in Krimson City unseen. For every flavor of a new victim lends them the disguise to move unobserved.

Take this body for example… this rugged later thirty’s detective who has a missing wife and a dead daughter. They remember Myra very well. Her death had the spice they liked… that perfect sprig of terror for not herself but for her wayward husband. It was her that allowed them to become Sebastian Castellanos. His flavor was on her. And now he is in them. They brought their finger to their mouth and popped it in, licking at them where they had clutched the dead man’s cock and tasted it. 

They turned and Michael was reborn, standing there and looking down at the dead body on the floor. To the gurney to the side labeled ‘incinerator’. With very little effort they hoisted the body onto the gurney and covered it with a cheap cotton cloth. But not before picking up the files on the autopsied bodies and stuffing them under the sheet with the corpse. 

Without any sideward glances from anyone else, he was able to walk out of the room pushing the gurney all the way to the incinerator and he disposed of the body along with all the files. They knew from Michael’s taste that he usually burned the bodies after they had been cut up. They were all wards of the state anyway. No one cared about them. And even if someone did care… they did not. They stood looking into the incinerator, not at the bodies, but the files curling up and blackening. Those were the hard copies. They were to be lent to the detectives on the case and given back to make computer copies. Now they will have no evidence. 

When they were done with Michael, his body looked twisted… exactly the way he described the other corpses to look, the ones found in Larchwood. Somehow… someway… the telling of the condition of the bodies excited them. It aroused their need to kill and feel the fear… see and taste the blood… they wanted to fuck every whole in the young man’s body. But they got sloppy. They could have been seen. Or this detective could have been seen. In which case they would be free and they would go after Sebastian anyway, a momentary lapse. It shan’t happen again.

*//*//*

The morning was warming up fast as the sun rose and warmed up the city. Joseph sat and looked at something in his little black book he notoriously carried with him everywhere to jot things down in. Sebastian used to call it Joseph’s ‘little black book’ but of course Joseph always became stern at the phrase and asked that it not be called that in public because it causes trouble and loaded phrases like that can be misinterpreted. It’s his book he holds things in, pictures and his ID and information he feel may be useful while in the field.

While Sebastian stuffed his face with his sandwich and trying to read the morning sentinel looking for a story on the earthquake the other day he noticed the way Joseph was looking at something in that little black book. He thought for a moment it may have been his daughter. But no… that is not a look of paternal love on his face. He thought perhaps Joseph’s wife. Nah… He has known Joseph for a while now and thinking of his wife never quite put that expression on his face. It was love.

Sebastian has seen it before. Likely did it too; make that same face. Sebastian was curious as to whom Joseph was looking at with such longing. He didn’t want to be intrusive and lean back to look. Besides, if Joseph was okay with it, he would not be leaning away so Sebastian could not see what it was he was looking at. Still, by nature, Sebastian is a curious man and he knew it would occasionally nag him that he couldn’t see what Joseph was looking at.

Sebastian thought for a moment that Joseph could be having an extramarital affair. He looked sideways at Joseph. The man seemed too, it was hard to tell from this angle, run his thumb over something in the left hand inside cover pocket. Nah… Joseph isn’t the type to cheat on his wife, is he? Sebastian just didn’t think Joseph could handle the stress of something like that without breaking down and confessing after a light kiss with someone other than his wife. He is just so… immaculate. Okay that may be stretching it, but Joseph is so ‘by the books’ with everything in his life that cheating would certainly be something Sebastian would notice.

Joseph looked up and smiled nervously when he caught sight of Sebastian staring at him. He tucked that black book into his black vest pocket under the crisp black coat he wore. Sebastian smiled a little in return as Joseph started the car. Like everything about Sebastian, Joseph is just the opposite. Sebastian tended to be lazy about his appearance. Joseph is always polished. Joseph hardly has a stray hair out of place while Sebastian has crumbs on his lap and mayonnaise or butter on the corner of his mouth. Joseph eyed it, tried to fight back the image of licking it off for him. He turned red and grinned stupidly.

“Head back?” He asked trying to forget his minds very vivid portrayal of the act.

“Yeah – Joseph… uh… you were looking at something fairly intensely inside that book of yours.… I mean, I only ever see that sort of concentration when we are working on a case. But there seemed to be more than just absorption there. You uh… you having an affair?” Sebastian just asked. “You can tell me, I won’t say anything.” He couldn’t help it. Joseph is his friend and they trust one another. He had a feeling Joseph would tell him if he was. Instead Joseph looked a little affronted. 

“No.” There was that slight blush again. “Just thinking deep thoughts. We should get back. I am sure autopsy is open by now.” Joseph said quickly, hoping Sebastian never found out about the picture of him Joseph kept in his pocket. Sebastian wasn’t satisfied, seeming to recall a lady telling him that ‘joseph is in love’ the other day. Perhaps Joseph is just embarrassed. Tonight Sebastian will try to get him to talk again when they have supper. Maybe it isn’t his sister he is inviting but maybe ‘the other woman’. Sebastian decided to let it drop until later. Work comes first and they have an interesting case on their hands.

They went back to the station with idle banter until they parked and stepped out of the car. As they approached the building they started talking about the things they would do today for building p information on the case of Larchwood Veterans Hospital. 

“That’s disgusting. I cannot fathom how you can bring yourself to eat that stuff.” Joseph said as Sebastian burped into his hand. They were walking up the steps to the KYPD. Sebastian chuckled and patted his stomach as they approached the door.

“It was easy. Just try not to think of what that stuff is really made of and load it with ketchup.” He said as he reached for the door handle the same time Joseph reached as well and their hands grasped it at the same time. Joseph pulled away immediately and flushed a little as he looked down at the ground, cursing himself for reacting that way when their fingers only brushed each other. They have certainly touched a lot more than that.

“Excuse me for not letting you be the gentleman.” Sebastian relinquished hold of the handle and indicated that Joseph can open the door instead. Sebastian had noticed Joseph blush but thought it may have been the cold… and if it wasn’t, he still maintained that the younger man got ruffled about a lot. Good thing he is solid on the job though. This sort of thing is not very conducive out in the field. 

“Age before beauty, my friend!” Joseph joked to cover up the awkward moment. Sebastian looked impressed by the argument and then bowed.

“Of course, my dear. But I would not be a very nice gentleman to just let you walk through the door on your own. Shall I carry you across the threshold, darling?” Sebastian didn’t wait for Joseph to retort, he attempted to pick Joseph up bridal style which would have proved to be easy if Joseph hadn’t fought him. They wrestled a little in a joking manner in front of the door until it opened and their captain was framed in the opening looking at them like a severe schoolmaster. 

“You two getting paid to act like hooligans? Have you got the autopsy reports? Have you questioned other people? Why haven’t I gotten anything yet?” He asked, looking more at Sebastian who is standing up slowly from his crouched position where he was attempting to lift Joseph.

“We had to wait for Autopsy to open. We have slotted others today for questioning. But I am afraid this may be a bit bigger than anticipated. We may know more once we read the autopsy reports.” Sebastian answered. His demeanor returning to his usual cool manner, especially when he regards his captain. 

“Golden Star my ass.” The captain grumbled as he turned away, flashing a quick distasteful look at Joseph before he turned completely around. “I want some semblance of a report before end of shift, boys. No delay. Understood?” 

“Yes sir.” Sebastian and Joseph said together with conflicting tones. They watched for a moment while their captain lumbered away.

“What an asshole.” Sebastian snapped. He wasn’t sure why the Captain didn’t like him. It can’t be his drinking. His work has never suffered. It can’t be the situation with Myra or Lilly… that didn’t affect his performance either. In fact, he felt it made him sharper. Why would he just have such a low opinion of him? Sebastian perhaps thought it was jealousy because he had been praised so much and rose so fast in the ranks. He had made detective in less time than it took for the Captain to even make it out of his training uniform. It sucks to be him… he sounds like a fucking baby.

“I know but he is right. We haven’t even given a preliminary report yet. We usually have one before now.” True it has only been a couple days since they had been given the files and most of the time their work is so sufficient that they had their preliminary and full report in before this time. However there seems to be a lot more layers than they are accustomed too in this case. Like it or not, they had to buckle down and get going.

“It’s not exactly like this is a usual case.” Sebastian said as they walked further into the lobby.

“Don’t worry, we can do this. We will have a prelim today.” Joseph said with a soft smile that nearly pulled the corners of Sebastian’s lips up despite his now sour mood because of his cock-blocking captain.

“I will go to the office, get the names of the people we are interviewing today and to evidence. You can go to autopsy and get the files or at least see if they have some of them done and meet me in evidence either way.” Sebastian said. Joseph nodded and looked at his partner for a second before he turned away and bustled down the hall in the opposite direction to which Sebastian was heading.

Sebastian watched Joseph go to the elevators and could not explain why he wanted to follow him. He had a bad feeling about something. It was weighing on his chest the way the tension did as the days lengthened before Myra’s disappearance. He couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen or has happened. He felt this standing here as if the sensation was palpable and draped over him like a wet cold blanket. He usually understands his feelings but really… what could possibly happen? They are in the Police Station. He watched as Joseph boarded the elevator and their eyes, from a distance, met again just as the door closes.

Sebastian watches as the light numbers above the elevator start the decent down to the lower floor and the sensation got worse. It was rising in his throat. He became genuinely afraid that something was going to happen and because of this he started to jog to the elevator. Even before he could get there, Joseph would be down in the lower levels. He would take the stairs off to the left until a person was standing in front of him.

He visibly looked like he had put on the breaks, almost running into a young girl, maybe seventeen or eighteen years old. He looked down to take in her appearance. She was sniffing a little like she had been crying and she looked at him as if she was struggling to say something. It was almost like she got in his way on purpose but then she apologized and stepped aside. Sebastian never seen her before but she wore nothing but a dingy red dress that looked like it hasn’t been washed in months and her long black hair was tatty, unkempt and her pale eyes darted about with a vague air of ‘looking for someone’.

“Can I help you?” Sebastian asked. She eyed him for a moment. He reached his hand out to her arm instinctively to lead her out of the lobby but she pulled away, eying him suspiciously.

“I’m looking for my brother. I don’t know where he is.” She said. Sebastian noticed that passing officers and workers were casting her glances. Confusion written large on their faces. A crying girl in the middle of the lobby, you would think someone saw her come in, but everyone including himself had been taken aback by her sudden appearance. 

“And you are?” Sebastian asked. “Who is your brother? Have you been in an accident?” Sebastian figured he could have been distracted enough to not notice her come in like this with his idiotic captain and the case he and Joseph were working on…but everyone not seeing her?

“I… I don’t remember. I want my brother back.” She said frantically and the others, visitors and staff of the police department were starting to look at her a little more closely. Sebastian attempted again to hook her arm and this time she did not fight. She allowed him to lead her to a side office. There she was given a blanket, a cup of water and asked to wait while Sebastian got someone to talk to her. Without him being on any potential case for her, he had to be assigned and he wasn’t. She needed to be assessed first by the captain.

Leaving her in the quiet room sipping her water, Sebastian had lost that feeling of unease that had settled in him about Joseph going downstairs. First things first, he had to make sure this young lady was attended too and then get back to his own work. He’d be damned if he lets his captain talk to him and his partner like ignorant school children again. He turned, and instead of going to autopsy, he headed toward their shared office and then to evidence, confident that Joseph would be fine and he could handle himself.


	7. Bertha Cobalt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A sort of back story to the tale of Bertha Cobalt, one of the very few survivors of Larchwood. How was she tied into the events of the hospital and Dr. Lancey? Was she upfront with Sebastian and Joseph when they talked to her?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am SOOOO SORRY it took years for me to update this. But life happens. As we all know. Health issues, work, family, writers block. Other interests circle in and out. But it is really no surprise that the upcoming TEW2 has sparked my interest again.

“Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.”  
― Mark Twain 

_Twenty years earlier.  
The night had already been a long one. Her feet ached and she just hoped it would end before her eyes started to get blurry and the agitation set in. She rubbed at the side of her face with the back of her wrist as she was preparing a mild sedative for a patient with chronic night terrors. It was the only way she would sleep without terrorizing everyone on her wing or staying awake all night. _

_The needle was in the small glass bottle as she depressed the plunger. She does this many times during her shift for various reasons and she can almost do it without looking or paying attention to other menial tasks. Her mind wandered to earlier in the shift. A large group of people came in and all of them unfamiliar to her in name but she had seen their faces before. The sparse family members in the hospital to visit loved ones were told they were executives visiting to keep tabs on the management of the hospital since they are taking care of some really fragile patients with serious mental issues._

_Bertha knew that was a bunch of shit. These people are part of some cult or something. She wasn’t sure ‘cult’ was the right thing to say… but they certainly acted like it. They never spoke about what they were really doing outside the basement where they would always follow Dr. Lancey down on their arrival. The air they gave off seemed to her like they were… government? Perhaps… or… some dark affiliate tasked with the creation of war weapons or… some covert control crap. Bertha never knew exactly the details however she knew enough to be glad she didn’t._

_A group of about seven people, some looking like doctors, and some looking like scientists all accompanied Dr. Lancey down into the basement. He swiped at the electronic lock with a tag on his jacket. He is the only one who had that tag. And they followed him in, one of the men; an older Japanese man looked coldly at her, there is a striking shod of silver at his temples and his deep dark eyes seemed devoid of feeling. She only made brief eye contact before she lowered her eyes to the medication book before her on the rolling med cart._

_As per order of Dr. Lancey Bertha gave instruction to the aids and orderlies to open the wings vents. Dr. Lancey said to circulate the air so it doesn’t get stale or start breeding bacteria or viruses, to open the vents on the wings on a rotating basis. The duration of the time Bertha stays on a wing should give enough time for the air to move through the vents and bring cleaner air in. The aides and orderlies didn’t understand that reasoning. Open the windows… that will air out the wings too.  
“Don’t be an idiot. Its fall… one cold draft and it can send a bug right through here like wild fire. Mark you, you open those windows and this time tomorrow everyone will be laid up with the flu. So unless you want to be wiping snot and phlegm balls off people’s chins, keep them goddamned windows SHUT!” Bertha said and starkly refused the opening of windows in the facility. _

_Of course her following Dr. Lancey’s orders made her a tyrant to the others who worked under her. They didn’t seem to understand how much trouble would be had if orders were not followed to the last detail. She was the only thing stopping them from becoming part of whatever it was those shady people were doing in the basement. She had to instill fear in them. She had too… to protect them._

_‘… You will do well to remember that I run this hospital. You will do well to remember who holds your career in his hands. Any deviation from your given instruction in the administration of these sedatives will result in your name being ruined in Krimson City. I can easily destroy you. And I will.” Dr. Lancey said after a brief affair with his head nurse._

_Bertha was paralyzed with fear as he leaned over her bare shoulder as she dressed after having sex with him at a motel not far outside of the town. Her husband is involved in all sorts of community functions, has a seat in the city hall and has much sway over the goings on in Krimson City. The threat issued that if she told anyone about what she seen in the hospital that her husband’s credibility would be destroyed. Their names would be destroyed… if not bodies._

_“… You will become a tool. I can find use for you.”_

_Bertha was no different than other people whose silence came at a price. She did not speak of anything she seen, nor the obvious questionable things she was made to do to the patients of the hospital… and she shuttered to remember some of the more useless staff who by police records, just went missing after having left work. But by that time, police… officials of the city… and everyone was involved. Things could be glossed over. Who cared if some single middle aged spinster disappeared?  
She would be given instruction to give certain people drugs. If she didn’t she would find her husband dead. Her children made into guinea pigs to whatever things they were doing down in the depths of the hospital. No one ever heard anything. No one ever saw anything. Least of all her, who was the closest to knowing than anyone other than the ones who actually did know. _

_After years of being party to the random disappearances of workers and staging the deaths of patients that were very much NOT dead, Bertha could no longer hold her curiosity back. She had started sneaking around in the attic looking for old records and files of the lay out of the hospital when it was first built. Strangely there was no indication of how old the building was in anything she found in the moldy old boxes covered in dust and spiders._

_She went to the library always at odd hours to avoid being detected. She managed to find only one small article in the paper. It wasn’t the Krimson News… it was a pamphlet like they used to use when town criers would stand on street corners and shout the daily news. An article from 1873 that claims the building had already been in existence for 30 years. The news said it was going to be a hospital. She remembered that it looked vaguely like a school house, one standing room with an elaborate steeple. It had clearly been expanded on over the years as Larchwood was a huge institution._

_“… in claims made by people who had seen men and women go into the building to ‘work’ and never come out again. Although this newly built station of health is the most fundamental part of Larchwood, mysterious stories already surround the newly erected building.” The barely legible print read followed by poorly explained findings of a lower basement that was unfinished and not on the original plans. Authority figures did stumble on the access of a sub-basement but said there was nothing down there. They blocked it off to stop slave runners._

_Bertha could find nothing else. She never once expected that she was being followed and that trips to the library seemed innocuous on the outside but… somehow… he found out what she was doing. Her husband was found dead in his car on the side of the road not more than twenty four hours after reading the article about the origins of Larchwood. A massive heart attack was on the coroner report. However she knew it wasn’t so. She had rushed to the scene and seen her husband’s body as they pulled him out of the little car. His body was twisted like a bread tie. The car was against a tree however he did not strike it hard enough to even make a palpable dent in the bumper._

_Her heart broke for her husband. But immediately she knew it was not natural. Heart attacks do not distort the body like clay. She instantly ran home to contact her children. Her sons lived in other cities and she hoped it would take Dr. Lancey time to orchestrate some sort of attack on them so she could warn them to run!  
She was able to get on touch with her sons and was relieved that neither of them had been attacked. But she is now on edge and wondered if her prying into the buildings history was enough to force Dr. Lancey to play his hand… show her exactly who she was going up against._

_A few weeks later, after the funeral and grievance period allowed by the hospital, Bertha returned to work. She had no choice. What would happen if she decided to just not go back? Would that put her children in danger too? Dr. Lancey would not let her go… not knowing that she had helped him in the task of gathering bodies for their work. She is just as guilty. She has blood on her hands too._

_Of course… the frequency of visits and the vanishing or more seemingly random people increased and she still had her hand in it. She would not risk it. She couldn’t, not with her children in danger. So more time goes by and over the course of eleven months, seven people go missing around the town. All of which she had been given instruction to drug. She was at the end of her rope. Her own son was in town for a visit and Dr. Lancey wanted him. She refused point blank to allow her son to become part of this charade!_

_Of course… fate intervened and Charlie, her eldest son had a psychotic break and he was admitted to the hospital. Eventually with his unstable condition he was brought to Larchwood. Bertha was stuck. She could not go to the authorities. She could not stand up to Dr. Lancey. Her son lay almost comatose in a room in this hell hole and she was just going to let it happen… let it happen. At least Nathan is still around… she hated that thought._

_Bertha suspected this had to do with Dr. Lancey and whatever he was doing in the basement but she could not be sure. She stood at her son’s side as he was strapped down on the bed and wept as she shoved the sedative needle into his vein. She could see any wild awareness in his eyes recede and he became tractable… as useless to anyone as a lump of trash. There was no visible damage to his brain, no history of this sort of behavior. He is an architect. He made good money; he had a lovely new wife. He was happy. His brother, Nathan worked with him. They were thinking of starting a firm of their own._

_Nathan claimed Charlie started screaming and swinging at something that wasn’t there. He was screaming like something was trying to kill him. Charlie said he never seen anything like it before in his life. Charlie had stayed in the hospital off and on over the next month or so while his brother slowly died in front of him. Unwilling to eat… unwilling to do anything._

_“Ma… what is this place? I get a creepy feeling every time I walk in here. Also… the way the building is built… its strange. I have done some research of old buildings with unusual construction stories. You hear of buildings that were specifically built to be like a conductor… or a projector.” Nathan said a little softly as he went to go to his mother’s house where he was staying while his brother was in the hospital. Bertha reprimanded him sternly for even thinking anything about the hospital. She did it loudly… openly. Nathan was a little confused by her actions but he shook his head._

_“I believe in stuff like that, ma… and I tell you. There is more in this building than people think. I would not be surprised if there are massive tunnels and secret rooms in this place that have all sorts of dark history to it. God only knows where these tunnels end up. I don’t like Charlie being here, ma… can’t we send him to Boston?”  
“We cannot afford to send him to Boston. With you taking time off, your brother in the hospital, we cannot afford to send him anywhere but here on my salary. Besides, he will get the best care he can get here. And you read too many spooky things. Stay away from the Stephen King and Dean Koontz novels and perhaps you won’t have these fantastic hokum feelings about a place that is meant to comfort.” She said in a hard clipped tone. Nathan actually pulled up a little. _

_“What is the matter with you, ma? You would never talk to me this way before! What is going on?” Nathan stepped toward his mother but he noticed that she backed up and looked to the side of the hospital. Almost like she seen something out of the corner of her eye._

_“Please, Nathan… I have been in work all day. I am tired and cranky. I have been tending your brother too! You think this is easy on me? I am an older woman now… I am not as spry as you and your brother anymore.”_

_Nathan just stared at her for a moment and his shoulders slumped._

_“I am sorry, ma… but I am taking Charlie out of here. Whether you like it or not. I am telling you, there is something not right about this place and I do think its making his condition worse. I have spoken to Emily and she wants him to go to Boston as well.” He said sadly. He had discussed his fears with Charlie’s wife and she agreed Larchwood had a terrible feeling around it. Nathan shoved his hands in his pockets, with his head down he turned around and started to walk away._

_“You can’t! You know that will kill him!” Bertha yelled to her son’s back. That was the last thing she said to Nathan. On the way home… Nathan had been attacked and ripped apart by a pack of dogs. Or at least that was what the wounds indicated. Bite marks that tore out his throat were those of a canine… but there would have to be several to cause this much damage. Half his face was gone._

_Days after Nathan’s body had been found, Charlie has slipped into a coma and he never resurfaced. Bertha tried to run. She was going to run… but her own hand in the deeds kept coming back to haunt her. So many people… so many innocent lives that didn’t deserve it were handed to whatever it was Dr. Lancey and those men he went into the basement with did to them._

_It was now only her and Dr. Lancey. She seriously thought of killing herself to escape it. But she was never a quitter. Never one to back down if she knew she could win. Bertha, despite her deepest desire to leave, returned to working at Larchwood only a mere two weeks after her sons were taken from her. She was going to find out what was happening. She would gather as much as she could… and find one honest soul to tell. Someone who would blow the whistle… her life be damned. And then, When Dr. Lancey had gotten what he deserves, he will live out the rest of her life in prison… or if they are merciful enough… they will give her the death penalty. ___

__**//**//**_ _

__Bertha Cobalt sat in her living room and stared at the old style television across from her. It was off so that the dark grey glass of the screen reflected the light pouring down the hallway behind her. She kept looking at it. She couldn’t take her eyes off it. Fear paralyzed her by the way the light created a narrow beam down the otherwise dark hallway. Like a blade through muscle, as different as two separate entities within and not part of each other. It showed how dark the corners are and how bright the cold late autumn sky is; even overcast with cold iron clouds; the antithesis palpable. Who knows what is in those corners._ _

__Bertha never had a tendency to fear the dark or the spirits that lingered in them. She worked in geriatrics; she has seen a ghost or two in her career. However seasoned her experience is in seeing those who have gotten lost on the journey to the other side, she feared that unknown now. Her hand came up to her chest as it began to heave. Her eyes so wide and focused on the reflection of the television screen that she thought her eyeballs would roll down her cheeks. Suddenly she began to tremble. Her arthritis flaring as her joints rattled in her body as if she was just a sack of meat and bones and someone was shaking her to entice some ravenous predator to its feast. She felt like she was coming apart at the seams._ _

__She is afraid to take her old eyes off the shine on the screen, even afraid to blink. Her eyes drying out and starting to sting and she made a strangled sound of pain in her throat because she knew her eyes would close despite her best attempts not to. It made no difference if she got up and walked out of the house. He would find her no matter where she went… he would come in the reflection. He would come when the fear was at its paramount and you could no longer keep your focus so intent on not letting him in._ _

__“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death …” She started to whimper under her breath as she heard the faintest sound. Her eyes started to blur over and she could smell something like… sulfur. The sound could have been this old house settling. But she knew better. It isn’t the tick of pipes or the creak of the house settling in on the foundation. The sound is otherworldly. She could hear the soft chuckle under the hammering of her heart._ _

__“I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me’ She muttered faster. Her eyes winked shut for a second. Eyelid didn’t even touch eyelid before they snapped fully open again and through the brief reprieve of her stinging eyes she could see the dilapidated hulking figure standing half in the shadow and half in the light of the hallway… through the screen of her television set._ _

__She drew in a loud gasp and her hand went to her throat as she tried to scream but nothing came out except a large expenditure of vomit and blood that gushed from between her teeth and her nostrils. Through the vomiting sounds Bertha heard her vocal chords let out a bellow of distress, the warbled sound of trying to cry out under water. The thing behind her did not move. It just stood there half shrouded by the dark corner of the hallway. The bloody vomit stopped for a second and Bertha wretched._ _

__“I am not afraid of you anymore!” She screamed. Bertha was always a strong woman but the pathetic chirrup of her burned throat sounded like a dying animal. It didn’t move. It didn’t speak. It just stood there. She couldn’t see eyes but she knows it is looking at her. She knows what it is… Who it is. She has known who came to visit her every once in a while. She would feel the fear settle in her chest and she cannot move. She is forced to stare forward and usually he will appear behind her and the only way she sees him is if he is in a reflective surface._ _

__Blood started oozing from her nose again._ _

__“They will stop you! You will burn in hell for your sins! And I will be waiting there for you!” She stammered through the stream of blood pouring over her vomit covered chin. She can’t move, not even to try to stem the flow of blood. Her nails dug into the arm of the chair. All her nerves tingled like a soft current of electricity was going through them. She gagged a little at the scent of the blood and vomit._ _

__“I hate you!” Bertha said. Her brows furrowed and her eyes the widest they had ever been. A great shuddering breath escaped her as her entire body went ridged and her breath caught in her throat. Her mouth gaping as the only sound issuing into the room was her arthritic bones cracking and small strangled gasps as she thrashed from side to side like a puppet in her chair. Still the hulking disfigured mass behind her did not move. Her body stiffened and her hips came off the chair. Her body bowed backward, her head and feet her only support as she trembled and a scream ripped from her._ _

__Her back broke with the sound of someone breaking a thick stick over their knee. For just a second she was held there in an impossible u shape, her head sliding down to the seat of the chair before she was dropped and her body remained frozen in that position like she was a statue. She rolled sideways out of the chair and landed so she rocked back and forth on her stomach. Her face pointed upward with a jaw broken and hanging to the side like a broken bumper of a car. Her eyes still open wide and her arms out behind her, fingers in a claw like fashion. The thing was no longer reflected in the television screen. The only thing that now moved in the silent old house was the drip of vomit down her broken jaw and off the surface of the table next to her._ _

__**//**//**  
The evidence room stunk of chemicals. Joseph ran his gloved finger under his nose and cleared his throat loudly as he waited by the desk for the evidence. He could not get the look on Sebastian’s face out of his head. The elevator doors started to close off their eye contact but Joseph had this feeling that in the seconds their eyes met from across the lobby that a hook was embedded in his diaphragm and something was trying to pull him back from the elevator. Joseph figured that it was his feelings for Sebastian coupled with the dire way his partner was looking at him before the steel doors breezed shut that caused the desire to run out of the elevator. Joseph knew better than to let his feelings get the better of him especially on the job. _ _

__“Sorry hun… it was almost like something didn’t want me to find it. I cannot even tell you what I just went through to get this damned file. Mostly because I am one hundred percent sure you won’t believe me.” A tall and large woman came out of a set of swinging doors with a troubled look on her face. She slapped the file down on the desk between them like she was going to be glad to get rid of them. Joseph picked up the file and rifled through it quickly and looked up at her._ _

__“Don’t you keep these things in cabinets?” He asked her. She nodded and snorted as she pulled her keys out of her deep jacket pockets and also dropped them on the desk. He has interacted with this woman before but he had never seen her so obviously ‘sick of it’ before. Usually she was so good at keeping calm and orderly._ _

__“Yeah but you would think I had to do some serious Tomb Raider shit to get that goal’darn thing… ‘ She plopped down on the chair that creaked loudly and she passed her oddly petite hand over her long forehead and sighed heavily. “ First I couldn’t find my keys… I never leave my keys laying around. I usually have them in my pocket. It took me a while to find them. So when I did, they were in the bathroom… okay, they must have fallen out of my pocket in there but that has never happened before.’_ _

__‘Then I have to go to the cabinet by climbing a set of rolling stairs. Well wouldn’t you know it… I get up to the top and I drop my keys to the floor and when I tried to go down the stairs I swear to the saints I was pushed. I fell all the way down to the floor. And then when I could finally move my ass, I had to reach under the cabinets to grab my keys. However my hand couldn’t reach them. I had to find something to go under the cabinets to pull them out and you know… any other time there would have a been a mop or broom around because the custodians are frickin’ lazy… but they chose today to do their jobs and there wasn’t anything long enough to stick under the cabinets. I had to grab a piece of evidence long enough to shove under the cabinet. Good thing the bloody stick was covered in plastic.”_ _

__Joseph’s brows rose higher as she told the events of her trying to get the file and it did seem like a lot to go through to get one file. He can also see why it would be hard to believe. He can see why she would feel like something was trying to stop her. But it was just a freak event. He smiled gently._ _

__“Are you okay? Do you want me to get someone up here to look at you?” He offered and she waved her oddly dainty hand at him in denial._ _

__“I’m not some pudding cake. I can take a beating before I go crying to mom. It was just an inconvenience. No one should have to go through that much trouble for nothing.” She said and heaved herself up again. She is as tall as Joseph but perhaps twice his weight and she leaned over the desk and looked at him closely. “A series of unfortunate events. I believe in the cosmos interfering with humans, Detective Oda… you mark my words. The fact that something gave me so much trouble getting those files means that something is BEGGING to not be uncovered. So you and Detective Castellanos work extra hard and be extra careful.” She nodded knowingly and walked in a little hobble away from the desk to others who were working in the office._ _

__Joseph wasn’t sure if he believed the cosmos had anything to do with what was going on. He believed in good hard facts. Facts he is sure are all in this file. He watched the larger woman for a moment before he turned and walked out of evidence. There have been some strange occurrences, the most profound being what he and Sebastian experienced in Larchwood. Even that can be rationalized away, he thought. He is sure that when he meets up with Sebastian and they sit down to review the files from autopsy and the evidence, readings from the blood samples taken from him, Sebastian and Bertha Cobalt, there is some hallucinogenic involved._ _

__Perhaps some rare form of drug not common in the United States. Perhaps it was purchased over the deep web or in the black market and dispersed. Hell, he wouldn’t put it past anything to be some kind of government conspiracy. It seems more plausible than something… paranormal. He knows that is what the evidence clerk was thinking. Spirits or aliens or something. Joseph smirked and dismissed the thought._ _

__He walked out to the hallway and wasted no time in walking toward the elevator in a bee line before someone obstructed his view. A slightly taller man in his uniform blues._ _

__“Oh hi, Connolly.” Joseph said in quick greeting. There is a strange look on his face as he looked at Joseph. “What?”_ _

__“Oh I don’t know. I was hoping you would tell me about the incinerator… “ He said. Joseph stopped walking and blinked at him confused._ _

__“Incinerator? Why would I tell you anything about the incinerator?”_ _

__“Aw come on… everyone is talking about how the incinerator was used this morning and there were human remains in it.” Connolly said in a hoarse whisper. Joseph looked at him even more confused._ _

__“Oscar… if this is a joke, I am missing the funny part.” He said dryly. Connolly shook his head._ _

__“No no! This morning the incinerator was used. Evidence of a body having been incinerated is all over the inside of it. And something weirder like… paper fragments.” Connolly said with his hands up. Joseph didn’t get it. That is what the incinerator was for. For the department to dispose of bodies or unnecessary paper work that always seems to accumulate by the box full._ _

__“Isnt that what the incinerator is for?” Joseph asked, feeling a little annoyed at having his time wasted. He started to walk passed Connolly when Connolly’s next words stopped him._ _

__“Yes. But usually the incinerator has a log in and out tag. You have to have special access to it. I heard that Michael… the new guy in autopsy went in there this morning.” Connolly looked a little more spooked than usual._ _

__“Probably went to burn some things. Body parts or something – bodies not claimed. It happens.” Joseph said but Connolly shook his head._ _

__“That is what everyone thought too. But… even with all the bodies from Larchwood having been burned in there… the ones not released to families and such… If Michael went in there… he never tagged back out. And his coworkers never saw him come back from the incinerator. To our clocks he is still on duty but he is nowhere in the building and the last place his tag was swiped was at the incinerator.”_ _

__Joseph’s mouth opened and closed for a moment and he looked down at the file in his hand as if to see if something could give him a response from looking at the plain manila binding. Michael is a good kid and he really seemed like he was excited about his job here so he couldn’t imagine him just walking out. Joseph looked back up at Connolly._ _

__“Was there any trace of him in the incinerator room?” Joseph was trying hard not to think of the young man being burned alive in the incinerator. The room is pretty far removed from the rest of the busiest part of the building; likely chance is if he had an accident and somehow fell into the incinerator – although it was built like an oven… it was unlikely – short of him crawling into it himself, no one would have heard him scream in pain or for help._ _

__“No. That is why we think…’ Connolly pinched the bridge of his nose. “We think he may have committed suicide. Because even if someone were to push him into the incinerator, they would need his tag to get back out.”_ _

__“Let’s not assume the worst here.’ Joseph said as he started making for the elevator again to see if he could be of assistance to the investigation. He halted in that train of thought. He and Sebastian already had enough to do with this case from Larchwood and if their help was needed they would have already been asked. That would have been the first thing out of the Captain’s mouth instead of berating them for not having their prelim done._ _

__“It is highly possible that Michael shoved something in the door frame to keep it open instead of bothering with the tag.’ Joseph knew a few people in autopsy would chalk the door to the incinerator open because it was really hot in there. “If Michael went down there to burn some things he likely just stuck the wedge under the door and pulled it out when he left.”_ _

__“Where is he now?” Connolly asked._ _

__“I don’t know. Maybe he had an emergency. Did anyone call his house?” Joseph boarded the elevator._ _

__“I don’t know. I was hoping you would be able to tell me something, I am not on that investigation either.” Connolly said as the doors started to close. Joseph stuck his hand out to stop the doors from shutting but too late. They thumped shut in front of him and effectively ending the conversation as he pressed the button to go up to the ground floor to go to his office and discuss this with Sebastian._ _

__Joseph liked to see the good and importance in everyone. But there is something about Oscar that gave him a hard time. He could never take anything that came out of his mouth seriously. He likes him well enough, but he always had a feeling that Oscar was trying to waste his time on purpose; a prankster looking for the next unwitting victim to fall for his bag of tricks._ _

__Still, if what Connolly said is true, then something has happened to Michael. Joseph wondered if it had anything to do with the files from Larchwood, the bodies cut open and such. If Michael was handling the files since he worked in autopsy then perhaps something was trying to stop him from handing off the files. That is assuming he really is missing and he isn’t sleeping in a closet somewhere._ _

__Joseph had a little twinge of fear in his abdomen. Sebastian is going to retrieve the files from autopsy. If Michael was attacked, would that mean that whatever attacked him… whatever? Whoever attacked him would be down there? Joseph would stop by the office first, see if Sebastian is there, if he wasn’t then he would go to autopsy himself just to make sure Sebastian was okay._ _

__**//**//**_ _

__Sebastian walked into Autopsy and the first thing he seen was Officer’s Randall and McLafferty talking to some of the autopsy staff. He walked in and stopped to listen to their conversation. It looked like they were just shooting the shit but as he listened he realized the autopsy crew was being questioned about the incinerator. Sebastian didn’t immediately approach. Brenda McLafferty started in the force the same time he did. He is well aware of her feelings about him. Or what her feelings used to be before Myra came into the picture._ _

__“But who gave him permission to go to the incinerator? Usually the grunt workers don’t have access or authority to go down there alone without a senior staff.” Don Randall asked. His saggy cheeks and paunchy stomach jumped as he talked. Brenda had her hands on her hips as she looked down at the two trainees and the one senior staff and it was clear they were confused and a little intimidated._ _

__“He was here for a while by himself. He came in at 6am, which is what his time punch said. I came in at 7am and when I did he was not here.” The senior staff said.  
“What possible reason would he have to go down there that early in the morning?” Brenda said in the typical Brenda fashion. Her hands on her hips as she adjusted her weight from one foot to the other, like she was bored and had a stick up her ass._ _

__Sebastian just watched the proceedings and clasped his hands before him. He knows Brenda is aware that he is there; her bitchyness seems to have intensified as if she was making a point. From what Sebastian could gather is Michael went into the incinerator room without permission. Sebastian would not put it passed Michael to have gone down there to smoke some weed or something. Hardly anyone goes down there so he could easily get away with it._ _

__“Well as he was the only one that was here this morning the reason he went down there is lost to me.” The senior staff, an elderly man with a bald head, said shortly to her. “There are no bodies to burn. The last of the Larchwood cadavers went down yesterday.”_ _

__Don Randall shot off a couple more questions about times and things and Sebastian recalled Brenda always trying to catch his eye for the first few months. Sebastian may have considered dating her… if she hadn’t been such a rude bitch who didn’t think her shit stank. And when he got his gold badge from beat cop to Detective she all but foamed at the mouth. She was simultaneously jealous of him and wanted him more._ _

__Sebastian may have been a little pleased with that. She got all sorts of praise from the captain and the other detectives and cops she worked with, yet it was he… not her… who got Detective first. Sebastian smiled, recalling her diffused face. Jealous desire turned to utter hatred for him and then for Myra. When Myra was reassigned, Brenda seemed marginally relieved… but then she got angry because she vied to be Sebastian’s partner but the Captain put his foot down and gave the spot to Joseph._ _

__“So Sebastian. What brings you down here with the pee ons?” Brenda said as she turned away from the Autopsy crew. Don rolled his eyes and shook his head walking fussily by her with an air of getting the hell out of there as quick as possible. Sebastian hadn’t even realized that the conversation had ended; he was looking at the floor near their shoes before her voice caught his attention._ _

__“Came down to get the autopsy reports from Larchwood.” He said simply. He answered her question, yes, but he directed it at the Autopsy senior staff and he set to the back to get the files. She came uncomfortably close. He could smell her. She had a great smell… if it wasn’t for her attitude she may have been a wonderful date..._ _

__“So high and mighty, Sebastian that you can’t even look a lady in the face?” She said mockingly. True… he wasn’t looking at her. Mostly because he feared if he did he may slap her just on principle and he doesn’t believe in hitting people… well if they deserve it maybe. And she does. So best to not make eye contact._ _

__“What do you want, Brenda?” He asked shortly. He wished they would hurry and get the files._ _

__“This is my case.” She said, pointing back at the autopsy reception desk._ _

__“Didn’t even know there was a case to be had down here… they are all dead.” Sebastian said, this time looking her in the eye just to see her annoyance. And sure enough, her face reflected her frustration at being given what she felt was a task beneath her._ _

__“Michael is missing. He tagged into the incinerator room but never tagged out. We all know its common knowledge that people keep the door open because of the heat even though they aren’t supposed too. So the fact that he didn’t tag out of the room isn’t so much a surprise. He has done it before. And apparently he got lost on the way up here.” She said in a bored tone. He just looked at her._ _

__“So… maybe he skipped out. Had an emergency. Anyone try to call his house? Family?”_ _

__“Not yet.” She admitted with some difficulty._ _

__“May I suggest you make the necessary phone calls to family and friends before badgering people who have work to do. You should know how this works by now, Brenda.”_ _

__“Where is your little Chin?” She said coldly. It was apparently the only thing she could say that may cut him at that moment. Sebastian felt a momentary urge to slap her face again before the door opened and the senior Autopsy staff came out with a pale expression._ _

__“What is it?” Sebastian asked._ _

__“The files are gone.”_ _

__“What?” Sebastian wasn’t sure he heard him right. The files are… gone?_ _

__“All the reports for the bodies that were checked. Not one of them is back there. Not one! They were in a locked cabinet! We expected you this morning for those files so I had Michael come in early to make sure you got them as you came in… but they aren’t there!” Sebastian wondered if the anguish in the older man’s voice was the fact the files were missing, or the fact that he and about half a dozen other people worked overtime cutting open and reporting the findings and now all the evidence was gone. The bodies burned or seized by family for burial._ _

__“You neglected to tell me Michael was here to hand off files.” Brenda said a little snappishly. The older man looked at her and said as he shook his head.  
“You didn’t ask. You asked why he went to the incinerator room… not why he punched in an entire hour before his shift was due to start.” _ _

__“You know how these things work! You’re supposed to tell me everything! God dammit!” Brenda said and fumbled for a hand sized note pad in her back pocket. Sebastian bitterly wanted to laugh at her and ask where her ‘bulldog’ is… since she obviously was referring to Joseph when she asked where his ‘Chin’ was. But Sebastian liked Don… and would not use him as a tool to irritate her further. Besides, he has more pressing matters._ _

__“There are no electronic files?” Sebastian asked._ _

__“We were going to electronically record them after you and Detective Oda was done with them. We knew you needed them poste-haste so I had Michael set to give you all the hard copies.” The older man said._ _

__“Don’t... don’t you record your findings while doing the autopsy?” Sebastian asked, reaching for any clues. The older man looked down._ _

__“We do normally. But since there was so many bodies they were only very brief descriptions and admittedly… we couldn’t say much as the bodies… were so…’ He went pale._ _

__“Were what?” Sebastian asked._ _

__“I have been doing this job for forty two years and I have seen decapitations… limbs blown off, bodies with bone deep burns… bodies hit by trucks and all that remained was hamburger. But Detective… I have never seen anything like those bodies before. They all looked like they had been fossilized. Some of them so twisted and disfigured that there is no way to cut them open without… without…’ The older man wiped at his forehead. “We had to cut off arms and legs… break backs and necks to get to what we needed. The most horrible thing was their faces.”_ _

__“Their faces.” Sebastian asked as he watched the older man closely. He can still sense Brenda behind him._ _

__“A total conclusion of terror.” He finished and his face reflected the deep concern for the situation._ _

__“However minor the recorded logs are… If they are still available, I will take those.” Sebastian said. The older man nodded slowly and doggedly._ _

__“There are cameras in here.” Brenda said. The older man paused on his way to the back to get the recordings and he looked back at her and nodded very obviously to the camera in the corner to the left of the swinging doors. She eyed it and then scratched out another note on her pad of paper._ _

__“Perhaps something on the surveillance will show us what Michael was up too.” She said and walked out to the older man waving her away like she was a swarm of black flies. It was clear he didn’t like her either. He bustled to the back room and came back with a digital cassette player. He put it down on the desk between him and Sebastian._ _

__“Now… everything is still on that tape. I just checked it. Or… I hope its all there. The ending is anyway. I hope you can get something from this and who knows… maybe Michael just hid them somewhere while he stepped out. Maybe I will find them if I am not looking for them.” He walked away while shaking his head and muttering to himself._ _

__Sebastian took the recorder in his hand and seemed to weigh it. Something is wrong. He had a gut feeling about it. Michael has been here for two and a half years. He seemed to enjoy his job, why would he just leave like this and misplace the files he knew were important? It wasn’t like him at all._ _

__Sebastian turned and headed back to his office. The entire time he never once thought of Larchwood. He never once thought of Michael and the missing files. The thing that kept sticking in his brain was Mrs. Cobalt. Something about her seemed a little mysterious. Her humor wasn’t forced but he sensed she was very careful about the things she was saying to them. What had she said? Something about looking at people in the dark, that is when you can see their true faces. When they think no one else can see them._ _

__Its an odd statement yet… something about the way she said it seemed to ring true to him. Like he knew she was telling the truth. Or rather she genuinely believed what she as saying. Sebastian hadn’t looked at Joseph in the dark like she suggested. He hadn’t had the opportunity. And he wasn’t sure what she expected him to see even if he did._ _

__The sound of clattering footsteps came from in front of him and Sebastian looked up to see Joseph running at him pulling his black coat on, a strained expression on his face._ _

__“We got a call… Mrs. Cobalt has been discovered in her apartment dead.”_ _

__“How did she die?” Sebastian asked trying to ignore that he was just thinking of her._ _

__“Coroner says she broke her back but the Captain wants us down there asap. Apparently it’s a little trickier than just a fall.” Joseph said as he kept up to Sebastian’s admittedly longer strides._ _

__“Meaning what?”_ _

__“Well… her condition is similar to the bodies apparently found in Larchwood.” Joseph said and for a moment Sebastian paused. The patients and doctors and nurses at Larchwood. They were all twisted up. They were bad enough to make a seasoned autopsy specialist grow pale at the thought of them. Mrs. Cobalt dies in the same manner._ _

__“What the fuck…” Sebastian muttered. It was his signature phrase although no one would ever call it that. But everyone has heard Sebastian say that at least once when faced with a situation beyond comprehension. Joseph shot a glance at his watch and grabbed Sebastian’s sleeve._ _

__“We have to go now, Captain wants us there yesterday. Did you get the autopsy files?” He asked as he raked over the taller man looking for an obvious file that was only conspicuous by its absence._ _

__“N…no… the files have gone MIA.” He said as he took the stairs and out the side exit door to the parking lot where the cruisers sat glittering in a line, the late morning sun warming the frost that lay over their black and white surfaces. The cold air bitter and stinging._ _

__“What do you mean they are MIA?” Joseph asked and immediately thought of what Connolly had said. About the incinerator and the fact that traces of paper were seen inside and a recent body was burned in there._ _

__“I don’t know what is going on but the autopsy hard files are missing and Michael was the last one to have them. When I got to Autopsy, Brenda and Don were there questioning the old man and his little elves.” Sebastian said as he descended the stairs and hooked an immediate left. A high chirp sounded and Sebastian automatically went to the driver’s side and got into the squad car._ _


	8. Orange and brown streamers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sebastian and Joseph are so awkward all of a sudden.
> 
> More nosebleeds, shock and beating around the bush.
> 
> Come on boys... stop messing around.

“A man who is master of himself can end a sorrow as easily as he can invent a pleasure. I don't want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.” -Oscar Wilde 

On the way to the late Bertha Cobalt’s house Joseph rifled through the findings from the blood samples and they came up empty. Joseph was confused and it showed on his face. He couldn’t fathom how there would be similar issues with everyone who had either been in Larchwood; it didn’t seem like a coincidence. Joseph started nibbling at the crease of his glove at the tip of his thumb; the movements made Sebastian take his eyes off the road to look at him. Sebastian didn’t often see that look on his face and the tense way the man chewed at his glove but it was there now, and it is such an antithesis of what his normal face is that Sebastian had to do a double take just to make sure he hadn’t misread him.

Something about Bertha’s conversation passed his mind in that moment; about looking at Joseph when he is unaware of being watched. Sebastian wondered if this is what she meant. Sebastian didn’t see anything particularly interesting about Joseph being confused other than it is unusual. Perhaps that is what she meant… that Joseph isn’t as perfect as Sebastian thinks he is. Sebastian knows Joseph well enough to know the man thinks he is only mediocre at his job, at best… feeling like a side kick to Sebastian, if that is how you want to look at it. Sebastian knew that to be untrue. Joseph is far more valuable an asset to be a side kick. 

Well… if this is what he was supposed to see then he would just have to nip this little problem in the bud. Sebastian cleared his throat.

“You know… I am positive that if anyone will figure this out, it’s you.” He said earnestly. It wasn’t a lie, really and he didn’t feel the need to lather on any extra sugar to sweeten the statement. First off, Sebastian doesn’t say that stuff unless he means it and it goes without saying that Sebastian does NOT say that to many people. But he was also aware that Joseph is one of the brightest detectives in the precinct. It’s no surprise he is on this case. 

This man deserved the praise mostly because he will be the one to see the little detail everyone else missed. Sebastian felt the corner of his mouth want to twitch up in a fond smile… but something more like embarrassment flushed his face. He was mortified. Because when he gave Joseph the vote of confidence he hadn’t expected Joseph to turn bright pink either and look away like a bashful child.

“Wow, Seb. That was awful uh… touching of you.” Joseph’s pink face was directed back at the papers on his lap. There is a clear smile on his face but it was sort of strained as if he was trying not to be too pleased with the vote of confidence. Sebastian cleared his throat and laughed as if it didn’t just get uncomfortable. He reached out his hand. 

He’s driving so he didn’t want to take his eyes off the road, piss poor excuse. He just didn’t want to risk looking at Joseph right now, afraid of what would happen. A funny squirm lingered in his belly. His hand reached, he meant to aim for Joseph’s shoulder to pat it awkwardly but his hand landed on Joseph’s forearm. Joseph had taken that moment to lift his hand to rub nervously at the back of his neck and blocked Sebastian’s reaching fingers. 

When Sebastian’s bigger hand fell on Joseph’s slim forearm, Joseph made a noise in his throat. His dark eyes fell on Sebastian’s touching hand and he swallowed hard in his throat. He looked up at Sebastian’s face, not understanding. Sebastian could not help but look over at Joseph then, pulling his hand back quick and is again, mortified that his face flushed. Sebastian didn’t often flush but he was making his praise of his partner a little too uncomfortable now. He hoped Joseph wasn’t reading too far into it.

“Oh sorry. I meant to… clap you on the shoulder.” Sebastian laughed a little as Joseph shook his head in a silent way to tell him not to worry or think about it. But Joseph’s face burned brighter still and as Sebastian pulled up to the street that Bertha Cobalt lived on, his eyes lingered a little heavier and longer on Joseph’s side profile. The way the late morning sun shined off his moist bottom lip and the subtle way Joseph had of feigning awareness. 

Sebastian had never looked at Joseph like this. It was pleasant to know that he still had something of a human side left in him to be at least able to appreciate that wonderful things still exist in this world. He turned his eyes away from Joseph and to the crowd of rescue vehicles and police cars.

**//**//**

As they walked up to the front steps of the house, Sebastian saw a cluster of blue’s standing in the doorway. They knew him and they didn’t look too closely to the badge as Sebastian nonchalantly pulled it from his trench coat and flashed it at them. He could see autumn streamers blowing in the crisp wind off the banisters that headed up the stairs; remnants of perhaps Halloween décor used as Thanksgiving trimming as well. Sebastian remembered that it was just a couple days before Thanksgiving. He never paid attention anymore to such things; he had nothing to look forward to with it being just him. 

Joseph came up the stairs behind him and Sebastian became aware of his partners closeness. Mrs. Cobalt’s words coming to mind again. 

“Men tend to wear a mask to hide their feelings. The only time to catch their true state of mind is in the dark.”

As they passed the threshold of the door, Sebastian was first and foremost hit with that sudden sense of unease that he and Joseph experienced the first time they came into this house. A feeling something was… not right. Sebastian couldn’t figure it out and it wasn’t the product of too much liquor or late night monster flicks. It was internal. It was his fight or flight jangling. It is real. The second thing is the darkness. Even though the sun is out, this house is… dark. Shrouded. Sebastian stopped and turned only his eyes to look at Joseph in this light and he felt himself clench a little.

Now he couldn’t be sure if he had ever seen that particular look on Joseph’s face. Or if he ever looked at him in the right light or whatever… but for the split second Joseph wasn’t looking directly at him, Sebastian could see an emotion on his face that wasn’t there outside. It looked, if Sebastian had to put a name to it, like a mixture of worry and desire as Joseph clung to Sebastian’s side close enough to be touching him. It was the sort of look he imagined was on his face when… When Myra got shot. Sebastian didn’t know how long he was looking at Joseph before their eyes locked and Joseph’s face pinched with concern. It broke that moment and Sebastian mentally shook himself. 

“What is it?” Joseph asked, the concern knitting is brow together. Sebastian turned away from him, his heart beating against his Adams apple. He had to swallow before he could respond.

“Nothing, I was just making sure you were behind me.” Sebastian said. He supposed that sort of expression isn’t all too weird. He is Joseph’s partner after all. What should he feel if there is a potential for danger and they were walking right into it? Sebastian was sure he had that look on his face more times than just with Myra. Her face flashed in his mind and he shut his eyes and rubbed at the lids as if to erase her image. Not that he wanted too… but he needed to focus and letting her in like that while things can be potentially dangerous was a good way to get killed. 

“Of course I am.” Joseph said. Sebastian looked back over his shoulder; the look plainly said he was scared. Joseph nodded encouragingly. 

Sebastian knew it wasn’t unusual even for the more seasoned detectives to be a little nervous going into the unknown. If you aren’t scared that is a good way to get yourself killed… His trainer said when he was in the academy. 

Sebastian was getting close to where the sitting room was and there were people around dusting for fingerprints, even looking for blood and other signs of forced entry and struggle. Out of the small crowd of people an older man came from around the doorway into the sitting room holding his nose, red liquid clearly leaking out around his pinching fingers. A younger officer following him out to make sure he is okay. Sebastian stopped. He had a nosebleed.

“Another nosebleed.” Sebastian said as he gestured back toward the retreating man’s back. 

“I will go ahead and check out the scene if you want to check on him.” Joseph understood. Another nosebleed in conjunction to Bertha Cobalt. He himself and Sebastian didn’t have a nosebleed until after their visit to this house. What are the odds this is just coincidence? Sebastian nodded and held up a finger. In not so much as a word, Sebastian told him he will be right back. This is why they are so good together. They can communicate without words. Sebastian followed the man out and Joseph watched until his broad back was out of sight before he turned and walked into the sitting room. There were people standing around a stretcher, their faces pale as they covered something rather odd shaped on the gurney. 

“Just a moment.” Joseph said as he approached the gurney. The EMT’s separated and looked at the badge Joseph had shown before allowing him near the body. Joseph pulled the rim of his glove to make sure it was on snug before be approached the gurney and pulled back the sheet loosely draped over it. When he did he literally gasped and turned his face away quickly. It was like he had been punched in the gut. Mrs. Cobalt’s eyes were frozen open and in an angle that made it look like she was staring at him. He had to really work at looking back toward her. 

“That was pretty much everyone’s reaction to this.” A squat woman said as she came up to him. Her face was a bit pale and she looked a bit sweaty. She’s a cop.  
“You the one who answered the call first?” Joseph asked as he looked at Mrs. Cobalt closely with a twisted face.

“Yeah. Dispatch said there was a frantic old lady on the phone saying her neighbor was all twisted up like a garden hose…” Joseph looked at the cop beside him. He noticed she had a slight red rim around her dark brown nostril. 

“Did you get a nosebleed?” He asked. She nodded her head. 

“Yeah. I was just standing here jotting down my findings and then it landed on my paper. Never have nosebleeds.” She showed him her note pad with a big red splash on it. Joseph looked at her for a moment and then looked around to the others.

“Has anyone else had a nosebleed since coming in here?” Most of them shook their heads.

“Just Officer Redden. He has been having them though. For at least a week.” The answering officer said. 

Joseph looked back at Mrs. Cobalt with a grimace. Looking at her was difficult. From the dried and crusted blood on her nose and upper lip to the… what he assumed was dried vomit over her jaw that looked broken, and down her neck and chest. What are the chances that these nosebleeds are connected to her? It seems pretty high. Joseph uncovered more of her, finally feeling the jitters of his initial shock of the look on her face dwindling down, though not completely gone. 

The manner, in which her body was twisted, as he examined the rest of it, let the unease settle deeply inside him. If he didn’t know any better, he would say this was spooking him, although he was more of a rationalist. This was proving to be one difficult pill for his sensible side to swallow. 

“Look at this, Detective. This may interest you.” The officer said and pointed to the chair she was found near. Joseph took great effort to pull his eyes away from the grotesque image in front of him and looked to where her finger pointed. On the arm of the seat was a hush puppy sort of material. It changes color when you run your hand over it. The material, aside from being spattered with blood and vomit, had a clear disturbance in the fur like surface. 

“EL…” Joseph muttered. He looked at it for a few seconds and asked if a picture was taken of that. The officer nodded and in his head, Joseph was sifting through the evidence gathered. EL…E…L… Right off he couldn’t think of what it was. He had a suspicion but he wanted to ask Sebastian’s opinion and gather more information. He turned away from the letters rubbed into the fur like material and looked around the room as a whole. It didn’t look like much had been disturbed. He could hear the officer’s surveying the surfaces saying they aren’t finding much of anything aside from multiple fingerprints on all the surfaces they were willing to bet were Mrs. Cobalt’s own. 

“What do you think, Detective?” The officer asked as she scribbled her findings on a clean piece of paper and handed it to him. He took it as his eyes roved over the surfaces. Nothing has changed so he couldn’t tell. His eyes fell on the glass covered picture over the mantel and in the reflective surface he could see the hallway directly behind them. His heart leapt up in his throat. In the reflection there was something standing there, filling the doorframe, hulking and… warped! 

Joseph jerked around and looked into the hallway. The thing wasn’t there. He looked instantly back at the glass fronted photo and the thing was not in the reflection either. His heart still racing as if he had been running full tilt. He blinked, dazed as he rubbed his chest. A hand fell on his arm. He jumped and let out a yelp. 

“Detective… what the hell just happened? You look like you just seen a ghost!” The officer asked as she looked him over. Then pulled back a little. “Detective…your nose…” She pointed and Joseph’s hand went up to catch a thin trickle of blood that rimmed his nostril and slid down to his upper lip.

“Shit…” He muttered and pulled a napkin out of his pocket as he made a quick move to the door. He made it all the way outside to find Sebastian still talking to the older officer. He looked up as Joseph approached him and his face fell. He halted the officer for a moment and walked over to Joseph.

“What happened?” Sebastian asked as he grasped Joseph’s shoulders. Joseph was clearly distraught. He is shaking and it looked like he had another nosebleed. 

“I…I don’t know. I was just – I was looking over Mrs. Cobalt’s body and…’ Joseph visibly shook. It wasn’t the frosty nip in the air that caused that chill to run down his spine. Suddenly everything was very hyper real to him. He felt a dull ache starting to form behind his right eye… a headache. He could smell the coppery scent of his blood. The stale smell of the house and old vomit. He could still see the image of that thing in the glass front of the picture. Joseph looked back into the house, the door still open and he can just make out the EMT’s bringing the gurney out into the hall from the living room. “I got a nosebleed again. Officer Pinnette was the first responder. She got a nosebleed too.” Joseph looked away from the EMT’s now crossing the threshold of the house and into the cold morning air. He looked up at Sebastian, very aware of the heat his partner’s hands were generating on his upper arms and he had to stifle the desire to press into Sebastian to feel his warmth.

“Did you get anything from him?”Joseph looked at Officer Redden, who looked a bit pale. 

“He said he was one of the responders to the incident in Larchwood. He said he had never been here before today, so I know the nosebleeds aren’t tied to her.” Sebastian looked back at the EMT’s who were loading the gurney onto the ambulance, the lights swirling and flashing but the siren long since silenced. Joseph knew Sebastian would work it out. The one thing they seem to have in common now is Larchwood. 

Sebastian seemed to be weaving the information together in his head in that split second before he looked back at Joseph and his concern became more evident as his hands clutched tighter to Joseph’s arms.

“Joseph. What is wrong, you look like you seen a ghost.” Sebastian said and Joseph nearly laughed.

“I think I may have, actually. I am sure I was just seeing things though. The way the body looked was… scary, Seb. I won’t sleep well for a month after that.” Joseph said as he made another swipe at his nose with a tissue. The bleeding had stopped. 

“What did you see? Sebastian asked as he hooked Joseph’s arm and pulled him back toward their car. Joseph allowed himself to be lead and stood still as Sebastian looked into Joseph’s eyes, felt his forehead and checked his pulse.

“It was just a quick glimpse of something in the hallway but I didn’t see it directly. I saw it in the reflection of a picture frame’s glass. When I turned my head it wasn’t there. Like I said… I may have just been a little spooked and my eyes played tricks on me.” Joseph ran his gloved hand over his belly as if he were trying to calm it. He felt a bit nauseated. 

“I know you enough to know you don’t rattle like that. I mean really… that shit we saw at Larchwood didn’t shake you like this.” Sebastian noted that Joseph’s complexion is pale and he pulled his trench coat off and put it over Joseph’s shoulders. Joseph looked a little insulted for a moment before his face flushed and he looked down, making sure Sebastian could not make eye contact.

“It’s freezing out here! Keep… your coat on…” Joseph stammered and started to take the trench coat off; admittedly it was too big for him to begin with. Sebastian grabbed the collar of it and closed it around Joseph more.

“Yeah… and you just had some blood loss. It’s cold and you are in shock. I do know how to tell the signs of shock.” 

“…not in….’ Joseph’s eyes felt heavy as he leaned on the car.

“Yes you are in shock. Get in the car. I will get a paramedic over here.” 

**//**//**

Sebastian periodically looked up to the paramedic looking Joseph over from the papers in his hand that Joseph had given him. Officers who had come out of Mrs. Cobalt’s house said that the only fingerprints in the house were consistent to being her own. There was her own blood with other bodily fluids mixed in and the disturbance in the material of the chair arm she was near. 

“EL…” Sebastian said out loud to himself. His eyes flickered back up to the paramedic, who had at that moment flashed a light in Joseph’s eyes to make sure his pupils responded while a purple surgical gloved hand pressed to his neck just under the ankle of his jaw.

“E…L” Sebastian felt a little distracted at the moment as he mulled over the letters E and L. He was repeating it like a mantra as he only heard the indistinct muttering of the paramedic asking Joseph some questions and then Joseph responding to them curtly. Sebastian thought it was a bit entertaining, he supposed. Joseph worried so much about how he is viewed by others and having some paramedic asking him if he remembers two days ago or is having any weird aura in his eyes must be killing whatever reserve Joseph has about his own opinions of himself.

Finally the paramedic left Joseph sitting half in and half out of the squad car and he took Sebastian’s coat off his shoulders and held it out to the bigger man as he approached, a bit huffy. 

“Thanks to you I have to be monitored for the next few days. They seem to think my shock may internalize and then externalize. Like I am repressing right now. I may have seen a ghost or my mind played tricks on me. It’s not like I…”

Joseph stopped talking as the thick brown trench coat slipped out of his hand. He knows what his sentence would have entailed and he hoped that by stopping where he did it would not remind Sebastian of harder times than they are already in. 

“Well… that settles it.” Sebastian said and slipped his jacket on. 

“What settles what?” Joseph looked up, asking a bit apprehensively. 

“Looks like you have to call your wife home from her business trip and you will have to have her home for Thanksgiving. You go rest and I will keep looking over these details and see if I can come up with anything.” Sebastian said and even before he could finish, Joseph was already shaking his head in a gesture that clearly stated he would rather get hit by a bus than call his wife home.

Only to Joseph, he would rather get hit by a bus than call her home because in some deep recess of his heart, the darker part that is still trying to hide it from him, is he wants to spend it with Sebastian. Renee would love it and it will give Sebastian something to feel other than alone. 

“She can’t miss this meeting, Seb. Besides… calling her home would just make it impossible for you to visit unless you want her scrutinizing everything you do.” Joseph said without looking at him. Sebastian smiled a little at that and leaned on the door.

“Is it for my sake, or yours?” He asked. Joseph looked up at him and shakily smiled.

“I don’t want her here, Seb. I almost wish she had Renee with her. So they won’t be around this place with all that’s going on and everything being so uncertain.” There was no other way to voice the concern for his daughters wellbeing without it reminding Sebastian of Lilly and Joseph hated himself for his lack of tact. It seemed so… evil to sit here and talk about his daughter’s safety when he knows that Sebastian- 

“We’ll be there and her dad is a great guy who will protect her no matter what. So don’t worry about it. I will come over and help you cook for the kid so you don’t burn the turkey or whatever it is you eat… seaweed on toast, Joseph? That is disgusting. Do you put that shit in the turkey?” Joseph could see he was just trying to steer the conversation away from anything family related lest he be pulled into a dark ravine of misery again and not be able to find his way out without the help of a long neck bottle. 

“I celebrate Thanksgiving like any other American. I have the turkey and the stuffing and no… I don’t put nori in my thanksgiving meal. Although there is a Japanese tradition I have always done on Thanksgiving- sort of a way to give thanks to my heritage too… that perhaps you can partake in with me. I am teaching Renee and it is just more fun when there is more than two participants.” Joseph knew Sebastian was just trying to keep him from thinking about what he saw in the house at this point and it seemed a bit of a relief. “Well, more than one since Renee will likely only keep focus for a few minutes before she wants to dig into the pie before the turkey.”  
They both laughed a little and in the cold calamity of the scene just outside of Mrs. Cobalt’s empty house, the sound seemed almost to warm the air… even if by only a degree. Like the death and fear lay over the area like a crystalized frost that cannot bear even the slightest warmth of a laugh. 

Even though their laughing was just a little chuckle, when it came to a full stop, Sebastian was still looking at Joseph. Joseph’s eyes were downcast, perhaps aware of the fact he was being stared at. Sebastian was glad for the moment they connected but reality always settles back in and the papers in his hand flapped in the bitter wind and it drew him back to the task at hand. It reminded them both that there is a dead woman in the ambulance no more than thirty feet away. A woman who was nice to them. A woman so horribly disfigured in the final moments of her life that the mortician would have to break all her bones to straighten her out enough to put her in a casket. 

Or they may just say ‘fuck it’ and burn her body. That thought reminded him of Michael and the oddity of him having vanished from work. How there was a bit of a man hunt for him. Sebastian felt as though they were really missing some big pieces of the puzzle and still… they have not got their prelim done and the Captain is going to shit nickels if they don’t. 

Joseph is in shock, whatever he says. So Sebastian is going to have to carry the prelim on his own back for now. Joseph will insist on helping in which Sebastian won’t turn down his help. He can just visit him at his place and they can work on it together. But Sebastian was bound and determined to not let Joseph do too much. Perhaps that was just an excuse to stay with him. He found the more he was with others the less he thought of drinking or any other thing that tormented him… and watching Joseph was a perfect way to escape his self-destruction.


End file.
